Page 40 - Vía Libre Special - 25 Years of Spanish High Speed Rail

SPECIAL

years of Spanish high speed rail

Gauge change facility.
High Speed Rail Operations

O Renfe’s High Speed Rail (HSR) operations

have evolved in these last 25 years,
One of the major changes in our HSR operations
started to take shape in 2012 when Renfe decided
to revamp its High Speed Rail passenger operations
in the form of a companywide multi-year project adapting to the changes in our customer
preferences and introducing technological
encompassing practically all the areas of the
organization. developments with the goal of improving
The design of the offer of Renfe’s commercial
services dated back to the 1990s and was in great their experience with us.
need of updating. The products offered and the
services associated with them although they had developed as part of this companywide effort to
been evolving since the launch of the first AVE service make HSR Spain’s leading long distance passenger
in 1992, they were not in line with the reality of the transport mode.
moment. Neither were their prices. There was a clear
need to improve the company’s competitive position New commercial model
with regard to the two main competitors of long-
distance train, the private car and air travel, in order Once it was decided that Renfe had to update
to gain market share and at the same time improve its commercial offer, it created a cross-disciplinary
our economic results. team involving practically all areas of the organization
In addition, technologies were and still are being under the direct supervision of Renfe Viajeros’ CEO.
developed at in increased pace, bringing opportunities The work team gathered and analyzed
to achieve greater efficiencies while at the same time information from our customers, leveraging the
providing even better services to our customers. fact that, for many years we have been monitoring
The challenge was to successfully integrate these passengers’ input and feedback from a number of
new technological developments into our day to sources: social networks, claims, surveys, hidden
day operations and ensure that we keep doing it in client, etc. They also collected information on
a continuous manner so as to be able to make sure the sector’s competitive position; costs, journey
High Speed Rail is more attractive and accessible to an times, prices, product designs, organizational and
increasingly greater number of people. commercial best practices of competitors (car,
In the following pages we will provide a aircraft and bus) and of rail companies of other
description of the most important tasks that we countries, and then analysed it.

40 Vía Libre • Special 25th Anniversary of the AVE Edition