The CNMC orders RENFE Mantenimiento to grant IRYIO access to its high-speed workshops: key points of the Resolution of 31 July 2026

The CNMC’s decision addresses the dispute arising between IRYO and RENFE Mantenimiento following the latter’s rejection of IRYO’s request to carry out heavy maintenance on its fleet of high-speed trains in-house at RENFE’s maintenance depots. Specifically, IRYO had requested a heavy maintenance inspection, which every high-speed train must undergo upon reaching a certain mileage. This inspection is mandatory and, if not carried out, the State Railway Safety Agency may suspend the vehicle’s authorisation, which is equivalent to taking it out of service. Heavy maintenance is not a process that can easily be relocated; rather, it requires months of planning, coordination, and the availability of specific facilities and specialised technical resources, both material and human. In Spain, only RENFE Mantenimiento’s workshops meet these requirements.

The CNMC bases its decision on three regulatory pillars:

1. Law 38/2015 of 29 September on the Railway Sector (LSF).
2. Implementing Regulation (EU) 2017/2177 on access to service facilities and related railway services.
3. CNMC Communication 2/2022 on cost-orientation of prices at service facilities.

The CNMC’s Resolution of 31 July 2026 establishes important legal principles on several levels:

1. The concept of ‘offer’ for the purposes of Article 44(3) of the LSF is broad. Article 44(3) of the LSF specifically regulates ancillary services, including heavy maintenance, stipulating that the operator is under no obligation to provide them, but ‘if it offers to carry them out to any railway undertaking, it must provide them on a non-discriminatory basis to any railway undertaking that requests them’.

   RENFE Mantenimiento maintained that it did not offer its facilities to the market and that the information published on its website was purely for information purposes. The CNMC categorically rejects this argument: “there is no greater proof that RENFE Maintenance did, in fact, offer the services than the fact that, as it itself acknowledges, it held negotiations with IRYO regarding the maintenance of that operator’s rolling stock, and with HITACHI, the maintenance provider for that rolling stock, which lasted for 18 months”.

2. The obligation to coordinate is prior and necessary. Should RENFE Mantenimiento receive new requests that are, in principle, incompatible with those for which capacity has already been allocated, it must handle them in accordance with the provisions of Regulation 2017/2177; in particular, it should endeavour to coordinate the requests by analysing all available alternatives to make them compatible (Article 10) and, where this is not possible, apply the prioritisation criteria set out in that Regulation.

   This is a highly significant point: a unilateral refusal without first exhausting the coordination procedure is, in itself, contrary to the regulations. In this Resolution, the CNMC requires that the operator of the facility must attempt to reconcile the applications before rejecting any of them.

3. RENFE Mantenimiento’s dual role poses a regulatory risk. The fact that a single entity combines the roles of operator of Spain’s only high-speed heavy maintenance facilities and maintainer of the fleet of the main competing operator poses a structural risk of discriminatory treatment, which the CNMC will monitor closely.

   RENFE Mantenimiento, in its dual capacity as both the operator of the facility and the entity responsible for maintaining RENFE Viajeros’ rolling stock, was aware of both the workshops’ capacity and the needs of RENFE Viajeros, and yet continued to negotiate with IRYO and HITACHI.

4. RENFE Mantenimiento is the sole owner of the heavy maintenance workshops for high-speed rolling stock in Spain. RENFE Mantenimiento is the sole owner of the heavy maintenance workshops for high-speed rolling stock in Spain. This de facto monopoly reinforces the intensity of the regulatory scrutiny to which its commercial behaviour and the management of its facilities’ capacity are subject.
5. Advance planning has regulatory significance. To minimise the impact on rail operations, heavy maintenance must be planned well in advance. IRYO scheduled the work to take place one year before the trains reached their mileage limit. The CNMC views this diligence favourably and takes it into account when assessing the unreasonableness of the timeframe within which RENFE Mantenimiento withdrew its offer.

The CNMC considered that RENFE Mantenimiento’s tender did not remain valid for the reasonable period required by the regulations and failed to take account of IRYO’s business needs, and that RENFE Mantenimiento’s decision left IRYO with no alternatives for carrying out the heavy maintenance work on its fleet on time. The CNMC’s decision concludes that the law protects an operator who planned diligently and acted in good faith.

The CNMC concludes that RENFE Mantenimiento’s refusal to grant IRYO access and provide services contravenes the provisions of Article 44(3) and the sixteenth additional provision of the Railway Sector Law, as well as Articles 9(2), 10 and 11 of Regulation 2017/2177. The measure proposed by the CNMC is proportionate, as it is limited to guaranteeing access to facilities for which IRYO has no alternative, and complies with the conditions previously offered by RENFE Mantenimiento, being confined to the 19 trains covered by the negotiations.