While the debacle over the future of Canada's passenger rail system continues, over in Spain amazing things continue to happen. Renfe, the Spanish government low cost high-speed rail service is named. Avlo . It already had competition from France's SNCF low cost high-speed rail service Ouigo on some of the routes. Now the latest news is that Spain's Air Nostrum and Italy's main train operator, Tranitalia are teaming up and entering into the Spanish low cost high-speed rail market with  Iryo in 2023. The high-speed trains will be from Bombardier and Hitachi. Imagine three high-speed rail operators on one line!  Time to wakeup Canada.

 High Speed Rail in Spain - Opens Up to Competition   Guest post by Phillps - The 14th of December, 2020 was a historic day for Spain. 3 high speed corridors (Madrid-Barcelona; Madrid-Seville/Málaga; and Madrid-Alicante/Valencia) were opened for competition, bringing an end to state-owned Renfe’s monopoly. 3 operators won each one one of the three service packages that were offered. On this post I’ll cover all the information known to date about each operator, the rolling stock they’ll use, ticket prices and the services they’ll offer. RENFE State-owned Renfe won Package A, covering 60% of the services offered. Renfe’s services will be served with AVE and AVLO: AVE AVE is the high speed service Renfe has been offering since the introduction of the first line back in 1992. It’s a regular 3-class service that uses 4 different rolling stocks. Prices range depending on the line, with the highest prices on the Madrid-Barcelona line (between 60€ and 150€) and considerably lower on o...

A little more info on France's low cost high speed train. It was really only a matter of time, but it's finally happened and the world now has some low-cost, high-speed rail options...in France. Have a few Euros in your pocket and need to head from Paris to the French Riviera? Well, it can actually happen now, thanks to Ouigo (pronounced wee-go), a train from the SNCF designed to bring affordable travel to all. Starting April 3rd, the super-fast TGV train is launching its low-cost tickets from Paris to Lyon, Marseille and Montpellier at an absolute steal of 10 Euros each way. Since there are a few stops in between these cities, a weekend get-away in Provence is not out of the question. If you have ever flown on a true budget airline, you will see some parallels within the Ouigo details. For example, the main train station is not in Paris. In fact, it's about a 40 minute commuter rail trip outside the city, by Disneyland Paris, at Marne-la-Vallée. Also, don't think...

FRANCE: SNCF President Guillaume Pepy and Director of the long-distance passenger business Barbara Dalibard unveiled details of the national operator's 'Ouigo' branded low-cost TGV service on February 19. From April 2 Ouigo services will run from Marne-la-Vallée Chessy station on the eastern outskirts of Paris to Marseille and Montpellier. There will be three return services a day and four on Sundays. Tickets can only be booked on line, with fares for the single class priced according to demand and ranging from €10 to €85. Children accompanied by an adult pay a flat fare of €5 and SNCF says that 25% of the seats will be sold at less than €25. Read the full story click on link. SNCF unveils Ouigo low-cost TGV service  - Railway Gazette