Ouigo (SNCF) has put 10,000 one euro tickets on sale to celebrate “in style” its arrival in Valladolid and Segovia, two new destinations to which tomorrow, Friday, its first commercial train will circulate following the inaugural trip with means and institutions this Thursday.
The tickets for this promotion to travel between Madrid, Valladolid and Segovia can be purchased during the next two weeks, announced the general director of Ouigo Spain, Hélène Valenzuela, at an event at the Valladolid station, together with the main local institutions and of the sector.
Outside of this special launch promotion, tickets for the new route start at the usual general fare of 9 euros, with a fixed fare of 7 euros for children between 4 and 13 years old, and a free fare for children up to 3 years old as long as travel in the arms of an adult.
The company hopes that this promotion will help it increase the number of travelers “significantly” and soon reach the goal of an occupancy rate above 90%, a figure it hopes to approach within a month.
The board has highlighted that, regarding to complete three years in Spain, Ouigo has exceeded 10 million travelers and hopes to achieve financial balance of its accounts this year.
He has also highlighted that Ouigo is the precursor of the liberalization of the high-speed railway sector in Spain since the inauguration of its first Madrid-Zaragoza-Tarragona-Barcelona line in May 2021.
The new line to Valladolid has two daily round-trip frequencies (4 services), which can be accessed by 14,000 passengers weekly, expandable up to 28,000 passengers taking into account that its double-height trains have 509 seats, which rise up to 1,018 in double composition.
Ouigo connects Valladolid with Madrid in one hour and with Segovia in 32 minutes. In addition, these new trains offer a direct service to Alicante, shortening the travel time between Castilla y León and the Mediterranean to 3 hours and 44 minutes, without the need to transfer.
To do this, the route of two of the four frequencies between Valladolid and Madrid will be extended, the board explained.
This route also allows you to reach Albacete from Valladolid in just two hours and 46 minutes.
Likewise, the company will incorporate Cuenca as a new destination starting June 1 with 6 stops: three round trips on the Madrid–Valencia, Madrid–Alicante and Valladolid–Alicante routes, also passing through the capital of Spain.
In parallel with its arrival in Valladolid and Segovia, the French company is working on meeting its next milestone: the arrival in Cuenca in June, the opening of the lines that connect Madrid with Elche and Murcia this summer, and Madrid with Córdoba, Seville and Malaga in the last quarter of the year.
To achieve this, the company “has been working hard” for 5 years, investing 40 million euros to adapt its trains to the LZB system, which it plans to inaugurate before the end of the year.
Once the entire transportation plan contemplated in the business plan has been deployed, the company plans to reach economic balance this same 2024.