Renfe and Amadeus have signed a new deal to enable travel agencies to provide their travellers with Spanish rail routes.

Amadeus will facilitate search, booking, ticketing, payment and settlement flow for the travel agency.

“We are opening our offer to any corner of the globe thanks to Amadeus,” remarked Francisco Cañamero Palacios, commercial director at Renfe.

“Many foreign travellers in Spain overlook rail simply because they are unaware of it or find it too complicated to search, book and pay for tickets in a foreign country.

“But this is now a thing of the past as travellers can book their trip from familiar channels well in advance, at competitive prices to give them the confidence to consider rail as an equal alternative.

“For Renfe, this will draw our offer much nearer to a largely untapped market and boost our revenue.”

In addition to Renfe, Amadeus offers travel agencies a simple link to the rail routes of SNCF, DB, SJ, Trenitalia, SNCB, and NS, Eurostar, Lyria, Thalys, CFL and MTR, as well as content via AccesRail and Hahn Air.

Thomas Drexler, head of rail and ground travel at Amadeus said: “Renfe represents yet another big step forward in our vision to build a global distribution platform for rail.

“Travelling by rail is just more comfortable and enjoyable than other modes of transport for many, and with the advent of high-speed, it is even more so.

“It should equally be the case to search and book it – and our rail platform achieves this by bringing rail to travel agencies in a standardised way.”