Renfe high-speed fares have fallen sharply after the accident of Urda, and the clearest sign is on Barcelona Vs Madrid: an AVE ticket from Madrid to Barcelona is selling for 30 euros during the All Saints' Day bridge.
That price matters because the CNMC put the average fare on the Madrid-Barcelona line at 53 euros, while tickets bought a week ahead often climbed above 100 euros. In other words, this is not a small discount but a clear break from the level travelers were used to paying before the holiday rush.
The drop is visible well beyond this route. Madrid-Lérida tickets have been available for about 26 euros throughout November, after touching around 85 euros the week before. Madrid-Alicante is at 15 euros, far below its usual average of 30 to 55 euros, while trains from Madrid to A Coruña or Zaragoza are not topping 25 euros even though their normal average usually passes 45 euros.
The price slide fits a wider travel pattern after the accident of Urda, when fear among Spanish travelers weakened demand and left some north and eastern trains with free seats. During a bridge that the DGT says should move 5.34 million people, that shift is hard to miss: Socibus sold 3,500 extra seats that disappeared in minutes, Iberia added 520 seats with a ceiling price of 99 euros, and the occupancy rate in Seville fell from 90 percent to 50 percent even as the city normally receives 10,000 AVE travelers a day.
But the market is not moving uniformly. Despite the fare collapse and lower demand, the Madrid-Andalucía high-speed corridor stayed out of service and Renfe kept sales blocked until 13 December. That leaves the holiday bridge as a temporary opening on some routes, not a full reset across the network, and the next question is how long the cheap fares can last once the holiday traffic clears.
