Avlo (, short for Alta Velocidad Low ''Cost'' literally ''"No Frills High Speed"'' ) is a

low-cost A no-frills or no frills service or product is one for which the non-essential features have been removed to keep the price low. The term "Ruffle (sewing), frills" originally refers to a style of fabric decoration. Something offered to customers f ...

high-speed rail High-speed rail (HSR) is a type of rail transport network utilising trains that run significantly faster than those of traditional rail, using an integrated system of specialised rolling stock and dedicated railway track, tracks. While there is ...

service operated by Spanish national rail company

Renfe Renfe (, ), officially Renfe-Operadora, is Spain's national state-owned railway company. It was created in 2005 upon the split of the former Spanish National Railway Network (RENFE) into the Administrador de Infraestructuras Ferroviarias ( ...

, offering services connecting major Spanish cities such as

Madrid Madrid ( ; ) is the capital and List of largest cities in Spain, most populous municipality of Spain. It has almost 3.5 million inhabitants and a Madrid metropolitan area, metropolitan area population of approximately 7 million. It i ...

Zaragoza Zaragoza (), traditionally known in English as Saragossa ( ), is the capital city of the province of Zaragoza and of the autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Aragon, Spain. It lies by the Ebro river and its tributaries, the ...

Barcelona Barcelona ( ; ; ) is a city on the northeastern coast of Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second-most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within c ...

Valencia Valencia ( , ), formally València (), is the capital of the Province of Valencia, province and Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Valencian Community, the same name in Spain. It is located on the banks of the Turia (r ...

Alicante Alicante (, , ; ; ; officially: ''/'' ) is a city and municipalities of Spain, municipality in the Valencian Community, Spain. It is the capital of the province of Alicante and a historic Mediterranean Sea, Mediterranean port. The population ...

and others on specific high-speed lines.

History

Based on the popularity of the French low-cost high-speed rail service

Ouigo Ouigo () is a low-cost service range of both conventional and high-speed trains run by SNCF in France, and also to Belgium in cooperation with National Railway Company of Belgium, NMBS/SNCB. The literal translation of ''Ouigo'' from French to En ...

that was introduced in 2013 by French national rail company

SNCF The Société nationale des chemins de fer français (, , SNCF ) is France's national State-owned enterprise, state-owned railway company. Founded in 1938, it operates the Rail transport in France, country's national rail traffic along with th ...

, and keen to encourage train travel on the Spanish high-speed rail network, Renfe was interested in setting up their own such budget service. The service was announced on 6 February 2018 by the then

Minister of Public Works This list indicates government departments in various countries dedicated to public works or infrastructure. See also * Public works * Ministry or Board of Public Works, the imperial Chinese ministry overseeing public projects from the Tang ...

Íñigo de la Serna Íñigo Joaquín de la Serna Hernáiz (born 10 January 1971 in Bilbao) is a Spanish politician and civil engineer. He was the Santander, Spain, Mayor of Santander between 2007 and 2016 and served as Ministry of Public Works and Transport (Spain ...

. It was provisionally named ''"eva"'', the name of the Renfe's own high-speed train service,

AVE is a Latin word, used by the Roman Empire, Romans as a salutation (greeting), salutation and greeting, meaning 'wikt:hail, hail'. It is the singular imperative mood, imperative form of the verb , which meant 'Well-being, to be well'; thus on ...

, spelt backwards and was aimed to be operational by the first quarter of 2019. The plan was for trains to run between Madrid and less frequently used AVE stations in Catalonia, namely

Camp de Tarragona Camp de Tarragona () is a Natural region, natural and historical region, as well as one of the nine Vegueries of Catalonia, regions (''vegueries'') of Catalonia. It is the third most populated region, with 536,453 inhabitants as of 2022. The re ...

and

El Prat de Llobregat El Prat de Llobregat (), commonly known as El Prat , is a municipality of Spain located in the ''comarca'' of Baix Llobregat in Catalonia. The Josep Tarradellas Barcelona–El Prat Airport largely lies within the municipal limits. It is part of ...

, the latter only around 10 km from Barcelona's Sants terminus. This concept resembles the strategy of Avlo's potential low-cost competitor Ouigo, which goes to

Tourcoing Tourcoing (; ; ; ) is a city in northern France on the Belgian border. It is designated municipally as a commune within the department of Nord. Located to the north-northeast of Lille, adjacent to Roubaix, Tourcoing is the chef-lieu of two ca ...

rather than the larger station

Lille-Europe Lille-Europe station () is a SNCF railway station in Lille, France, on the LGV Nord high-speed railway. The station is primarily used for international Eurostar and long-distance SNCF TGV services, although some high-speed regional trains also ...

. However, after a series of delays and with the prospect of new competitors operating as of late 2020, such as the airline

Air Nostrum Air Nostrum (doing business as Iberia Regional) is a Spanish regional airline based in Valencia that merged with CityJet in 2023, forming the region's largest aviation holding company, Strategic Alliance of Regional Airlines (SARA). An affiliate ...

, the Italian rail company

Trenitalia Trenitalia Società per azioni, SpA is the primary train operator of Italy. A subsidiary of Ferrovie dello Stato Italiane, itself owned by the Italian government. It was established in 2000 following a European Union directive on the deregulati ...

, and Ouigo, a subsidiary of French rail company SNCF, Renfe felt obliged to revive the plans for a low-cost rail service of their own. Renfe went back to the drawing board and new sets of proposals for the service were announced on 11 December 2019, with services planned to begin on 6 April 2020 during the 2020 Easter holidays. Avlo was set to run between the Madrid Atocha, Zaragoza Delicias and Barcelona Sants stations. In contrast with earlier plans, the service was to stop in Zaragoza rather than Tarragona. On 15 March 2020, Renfe announced that the launch of the service would be postponed until further notice on account of the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

. Customers who had paid a promotional fare of €5 were given the option to travel at a later date, while non-promotional tickets were refunded in full. Avlo services between Madrid, Barcelona and Figueres on the French border commenced on 23 June 2021. Three daily services in each direction run between Madrid and Barcelona, while a fourth service stops in Guadalajara, Calatayud, Saragossa, Lleida, Tarragona, Barcelona, Girona and terminates in Figueres. As in the previous attempt to launch this service, promotional ticket prices start at €5. Six return services between Madrid and

commenced on 21 February 2022. Since 28 March 2023, four daily services between Madrid and

are offered and since 1 June 2023 Avlo connects Madrid to

Andalucia Andalusia ( , ; , ) is the southernmost autonomous community in Peninsular Spain, located in the south of the Iberian Peninsula, in southwestern Europe. It is the most populous and the second-largest autonomous community in the country. It i ...

by offering four daily services, two on the

Seville Seville ( ; , ) is the capital and largest city of the Spain, Spanish autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Andalusia and the province of Seville. It is situated on the lower reaches of the Guadalquivir, River Guadalquivir, ...

-Madrid connection and two on the Malaga-Madrid connection. Since 10 December 2023 Renfe included a new daily service to

Murcia Murcia ( , , ) is a city in south-eastern Spain, the Capital (political), capital and most populous city of the autonomous community of the Region of Murcia, and the Ranked lists of Spanish municipalities#By population, seventh largest city i ...

via Alicante stopping in all intermediate stations. On 22 July 2024 additional services to the regions of

Asturias Asturias (; ; ) officially the Principality of Asturias, is an autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community in northwest Spain. It is coextensive with the provinces of Spain, province of Asturias and contains some of the territory t ...

and Galicia introduced connecting Madrid to

Gijón Gijón () or () is a city and municipality in north-western Spain. It is the largest city and Municipalities of Spain, municipality by population in the autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Asturias. It is located on the coa ...

A Coruña A Coruña (; ; also informally called just Coruña; historical English: Corunna or The Groyne) is a city and municipality in Galicia, Spain. It is Galicia's second largest city, behind Vigo. The city is the provincial capital of the province ...

and

Vigo Vigo (, ; ) is a city and Municipalities in Spain, municipality in the province of province of Pontevedra, Pontevedra, within the Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Galicia (Spain), Galicia, Spain. Located in the northwest ...

on S-106 trains.

Services

Renfe offers the following Avlo services: * Madrid Atocha–Barcelona non stop. * Madrid Atocha–Barcelona via Zaragoza. * Madrid Atocha–Figueres via Guadalajara, Calatayud, Zaragoza, Lleida, Tarragona, Barcelona and Girona. * Madrid Atocha–Málaga via Ciudad Real, Puertollano, Villanueva De Córdoba, Córdoba, Puente Genil-Herrera and Antequera. * Madrid Atocha–Seville via Ciudad Real, Puertollano, Villanueva De Córdoba and Córdoba. * Madrid Chamartín–Valencia via Cuenca and Requena-Utiel. * Madrid Chamartín–Alicante via Cuenca, Albacete and Villena. * Madrid Chamartín–Murcia via Cuenca, Albacete, Villena, Alicante, Elche and Orihuela. * Madrid Chamartín–Gijón via Valladolid, Palencia, León, La Pola, Mieres Del Camín and Oviedo. * Madrid Chamartín–A Coruña, via Segovia, Medina Del Campo, Zamora, Sanabria, A Gudiña, Ourense and Santiago de Compostela. * Madrid Chamartín–Vigo via Segovia, Medina Del Campo, Zamora, Sanabria, A Gudiña, Ourense, Santiago De Compostela, Vilagarcía de Arousa and Pontevedra. * Murcia–Valladolid via Orihuela, Elche, Alicante, Villena, Albacete, Cuenca and Madrid Chamartín. (one way schedule) * Valladolid–Alicante via Madrid Chamartín, Cuenca, Albacete and Villena. (return schedule departs from Murcia)

Rolling stock and pricing

The Avlo service consists of modified purple-coloured Talgo AVE trains. They are using S-112 trains upgraded to 438 seats, while S-106 trains are used for the Madrid–Barcelona, Madrid–València, Madrid–Alicante, Madrid–Gijón, Madrid–A Coruña, Madrid–Vigo and Murcia–Madrid–Valladolid services with capacity varying from 507 to 581 seats, both in all-second class configuration. Renfe has reported it is pricing tickets of the Avlo as low as €10 and €7 for the promotion of the new S-106 trains, compared to the lowest offer of €48 for the normal AVE ticket for Madrid and Barcelona.

References

External links

Official website

{{DEFAULTSORT:AVE AVE high-speed trains High-speed rail in Spain Renfe Regional rail in Spain Low-cost high-speed rail services