Barcelona-Lyon connected by train once again after Renfe recovers route

Barcelona and the French city of Lyon are, once again, connected by train after Spanish rail operator Renfe recovered the route between both municipalities on Thursday. 

The first train of the highly anticipated destination saw 240 passengers traveling and marked a "very happy moment" for the company, as Raül Blanco, the president of Renfe, said to media outlets before embarking on the first trip.

Currently, the service will be only available from Friday to Monday, but from September, it will be a daily service. And while Lyon is already reachable by train from Barcelona in just a 5-hour trip, on July 28, it will be time to get to Marseille.

Both destinations have sold 43,000 tickets since tickets went on sale in late June.

Renfe passed a security clearance to operate in France last December, shortly after its 9-year relationship with SNCF came to an end. 

The Spanish rail operator began to test-run journeys between the Catalan capital and Lyon last February. 

The feat, as Renfe's president said, is a milestone after "many years of work" from the company and its workers, and while some passengers were aware of the trip, others were surprised.

"Today was the first day of this trip, we had checked several options, and we went for tickets for this journey," Joan Velázquez, a father and Barcelona neighbor, told Catalan News after his three children and his wife gifted him a trip to Perpignan.

On the other hand, Esther Magon, a French resident returning home after visiting Barcelona, said that while she and her friends went by BlaBlaCar to the Catalan capital, the return was very convenient with Renfe.

And while some are traveling to Lyon, others will see Marseille as their final destination.

"It will be wonderful" to have a direct train between Madrid and the French city, he said, on the trip going to see his daughter.

Something similar to Ukrainian DJ Vitaly, residing in Barcelona for six years.

"When I got on the train, I saw many cameras. I already saw that this trip was special," he told this media outlet.

Past cooperation

Renfe and SNCF previously covered Madrid-Barcelona-Marseille and Madrid-Barcelona-Lyon together – routes that were scrapped after the French company became the only operator connecting both countries by train late last year.

While Renfe will begin with Lyon and Marseille, its "clear objective" is to eventually make it to Paris as well, a service that is now only provided by SNCF. 

The high-speed train to Lyon has a Tour de France exhibition with historic pictures, with the title: 'Queen stage, finish line Paris," to clearly mark their goal, as at this moment, they wish to reach the French capital ahead of the 2024 Olympic Games.

SNCF has two trains connecting the Catalan and French capitals every day and three in the summer.

Discovering French cities

The new routes will allow passengers to discover Spain's high-speed trains connecting Lyon, Marseille, Montpellier, Avignon, Béziers, Aix-en-Provence, and Narbonne.

The operator has launched a €19 offer for travelers going from Montpellier or Narbonne to Barcelona, Zaragoza, or Madrid to make it more affordable. 

The whole route will cost €29.

The Barcelona-Lyon route will start at 8:22 am in the Catalan capital, stopping at Girona, Figueres-Vilafant, Perpignan, Narbonne, Montpellier, Nîmes, and Valence-TGV, before reaching Lyon at 1:20 pm.

Meanwhile, the return train will depart at 2:30 pm from the French city and reach Barcelona at 7:32 pm. The journey time is five hours.

The Madrid-Marseille route will start at 1:25 pm in Madrid Puerta de Atocha, stopping at Tarragona at 3:46 pm, Barcelona-Sants at 4:34 pm, Girona at 5:15 pm, Figueres at 5:32 pm, and reaching Marseille at 9:30 pm. On the other way round, the train will depart from Marseille at 8:03 am, and will get arrive to Barcelona at 12:50 pm.

Daily services

From September, the route to the capital of the Rhône-Alpes region will be daily, and the same will happen in October for the largest city in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region.

Between Barcelona and Nîmes, there will be four trains daily.

Catalan cities such as Girona and Figueres will also enjoy these routes, connecting the northernmost stop in Catalonia with Montpellier in just two hours.