As of Monday, 12 May, Renfe will allocate 100-series trains to the Madrid-Puertollano Avant, which means they’re back to the former AVE Lanzadera after 20 years.
The rumours had been going around for some time. Given the ageing of these trains, Renfe was planning to relegate them to Media Distancia services as trains of the 106 and 107 series arrived.
This time, the rumours have come true, and the public operator has scheduled some Madrid-Puertollano services with this series of trains from Monday. Thus, the times of the AVE Lanzadera (1992-2005) are back.
This change will increase the offer of seats since the series 100 has 347 seats compared to the 280 of the series 121 and 237 of the series 104. Moreover, as they have a higher maximum speed, the journey time could be reduced by 11 minutes, although for now, they maintain the 82 minutes of the rest of Avant services.
As with the latter 104, the Comfort seats (1st class) are sold as Tourist class, since, at least for now, the interior has not been modified.
Although we have asked Renfe about this change and the future of the 100 series, we have not received a response. For now, they will coexist in this relationship with the 104 and 121 series, and we cannot confirm if they will arrive on the Avant Madrid-Toledo.