Renfe is considering filing a contentious-administrative appeal against the resolution issued by the National Commission on Markets and Competition (CNMC), published on 31 July, regarding the complaint lodged by Iryo against Renfe Ingeniería y Mantenimiento.
The dispute dates back to July 2024, when Iryo requested to carry out, under a self-provision regime, the R2 heavy maintenance intervention on its ETR1000 trains in Renfe’s depots.
Negotiations interrupted by Renfe
After 18 months of negotiations with Iryo and Hitachi Rail, the maintainer of its fleet, Renfe communicated on 19 February 2026 the refusal of access to the integral maintenance depots (BMI) at La Sagra and Valladolid, just days before the scheduled start of the works.
The CNMC considers that Renfe did offer heavy maintenance services and that, by withdrawing the offer without sufficient objective justification, it breached the transparency and non-discrimination obligations set out in railway regulations. The regulator further maintains that Renfe should have coordinated the requests, studied alternatives and applied objective priority criteria.
The resolution obliges Renfe to allow Iryo’s trains access to La Sagra for the strictly necessary time so that Hitachi can carry out the dismantling and reassembly of the bogies under self-provision. However, it rejects imposing on Renfe the maintenance of the bogies in Valladolid or the autonomous execution of all operations of the R2 intervention.
When ILSA/Iryo awarded Hitachi the train maintenance contract in October 2021, the maintainer assured Trenvista that the work would be carried out in its own facilities located near Atocha, Madrid. However, those depots were never built.
Even so, Renfe negotiated access to its facilities. However, the public operator maintains that no contract was ever formalised, and therefore the negotiation is not binding.
Industrial capacity committed
Renfe argues that the industrial capacity of its depots is committed to maintaining its own rolling stock. According to the operator, the facilities, critical equipment (such as bogie drops), skilled personnel and the margins needed to deal with incidents directly condition the recovery of trains and the continuity of both commercial services and those subject to public service obligations.
The company stresses that the measure does not constitute a general or permanent opening of La Sagra and reiterates that railway liberalisation must be accompanied by own investments in facilities and maintenance by all operators.
The CNMC’s resolution brought the administrative route to an end, meaning it can now only be appealed to the Audiencia Nacional within two months.