SPANISH airline Air Nostrum is planning to launch a high-speed train service from Montpellier to Barcelona and Madrid in October 2018.
Air Nostrum’s rail subsidiary ‘Intermodalidad de Levante’ (Ilsa) is the first private company to request permission to launch an international service on the Spanish high-speed network.

Ilsa accuses the current Renfe service from Madrid to Montpellier of being “commercially poor”  arriving as it does inMontpellier at night, making one day business or leisure trips impossible.

There will be two return services a day between Montpellier Saint-Roch and Madrid Atocha, stopping at Narbonne, Perpignan, Figueres, Girona, Barcelona Sants and Zaragoza. The journey from Montepellier to Madrid will take 5h 47min.

According to the provisional timetable, trains will leave Montpellier at 0700 and 1530, arriving in Barcelona at 1015 and 1845 and depart Barcelona at 1040 and 1825.
Departures from Madrid will be at 07.45 and 15.30.