Renfe Cercanías AM

Renfe Cercanías AM, formerly known as Renfe Feve, is a commercial division of Renfe Viajeros, a Renfe Group company, which offers different passenger transport services, both regional and local, in the autonomous communities of Galicia, Asturias, Cantabria, the Basque Country, Castilla y León and Cartagena, in the Region of Murcia, operating exclusively on the metric gauge rail network owned by Adif. This characteristic constitutes its differential fact compared to the Renfe Media Distancia and Renfe Cercanías divisions of the same parent company, which operate all of their services by Iberian gauge and standard gauge routes, only with the exception of the veteran line C-9 of the Renfe commuter hub in Madrid, which is also metric gauge.

The division is the heir to the passenger services previously offered by the public business entity Ferrocarriles Españoles de Vía Estrecha (FEVE), a State-owned operator founded in 1965, which was in charge of them together with the transport of goods, as well as as well as the management of the stations and their infrastructures, just as the National Network of Spanish Railways (RENFE) did with the Iberian gauge and standard gauge network until 2005. FEVE disappeared as a separate organization on December 31, 2012, due to the Government's plan for the unification of state wide and narrow gauge operators.

History

The current commercial division of Renfe has its roots in the extinct Ferrocarriles Españoles de Vía Estrecha (FEVE), an entity created to take charge of the large number of narrow-gauge lines that in the early 1960s ended up in the hands of the state. Just as RENFE had been created to take charge of all the Iberian gauge lines, for almost fifty years FEVE did the same with the narrow gauge lines that came to be fully managed by the State, as a monopoly.

With the aim of simplifying and making public organizational structures more versatile, and as progress in the progressive liberalization of rail transport in Spain, on July 20, 2012, Royal Decree-Law 22/2012 was approved, which dictated that FEVE would be extinguished on December 31, 2012. As a replacement, FEVE's operations on the control and maintenance of the infrastructures that had belonged to it were subrogated to Adif, while Renfe would take care of the maintenance and exploitation of the inherited rolling stock and the consequent transport services. In order to provide regular passenger services, the new operating unit in question would be created, while Renfe Mercancías inherited the activity related to the transport of goods. In this way, once the process was concluded, both the ownership of the standard, wide and narrow track networks attached/belonging to the General State Administration (through Adif and Adif-Alta Velocidad), as well as its participation, were unified. Administration in the provision of transport services, of goods and people, through the railway, regardless of the gauge (always through Renfe).

For a good part of the next decade, until 2021, temporarily and in order to take advantage of the recognition of the veteran brand "Feve" by the public in the places where it was implemented, Renfe continued to use that name to commercially identify its passenger services management arm by metric gauge, in combination with its main brand, under the name umbrella "Renfe Feve". As of that year, and as part of the progressive integration of these services into Renfe Cercanías that the operator had been carrying out, the commercial name of the service was changed to "Renfe Cercanías AM", accompanied by the characteristic red symbol, with the letter C rotated, which was already being used for the main operating unit of short distance services.

Services

Commuter services

Santander-Liérganes Railway.

Most of Renfe Cercanías AM traffic is concentrated in the commuter sector, with Asturias being the nucleus with the highest number of users, while the lines with the most traffic are those corresponding to Cantabria, with close to 2 million of users each.

Ferrol

• Ferrol - Ortigueira

Asturias

Cercanías AM has a total of six commuter lines in Asturias, which connect with the three of Renfe Cercanías. The services are the following:

• Gijón - Cudillero
• Gijón - Pola de Laviana
• Gijón - El Berrón - Oviedo
• Oviedo - Infiesta
• Oviedo - San Esteban de Pravia
• Baiña - Collanzo

Cantabria

Adif's railway line in metric width at the height of Requejada (Cantabria).

Cercanías AM has two lines in Cantabria, to which is added another one, managed by the main arm of the company. All of them originate from the city of Santander. Improvements have recently been made to these lines that have made it possible to shorten travel times, starting to provide a special non-stop service between Santander and Torrelavega in just 20 minutes, with the aim of decongesting the overcrowded A-67 motorway at peak hours.

• Santander - Cabezón de la Sal
• Santander - Liérganes

Vizcaya

In the Basque Country, Cercanías AM is present only in Vizcaya, where only one of the local commuter lines operates, being the only regular service of this type, offered by narrow-gauge railway, whose management is not the responsibility of of the autonomous operator Euskotren. In total, in the province, there are as many other lines operated by said Basque public company in the same commuter system, as well as the three managed by Renfe Cercanías.

• Bilbao-Concordia - Valmaseda - La Calzada

Castile and Leon

• León - Matallana - Cistierna - Guardo

Cartagena

• Cartagena - La Unión - Los Nietos

Regional Services

Galicia - Asturias

• Ferrol - Oviedo (2 daily services per sense, duration: 7 hours)
  • Additional services in Galicia as R1a Ferrol - Ribadeo (4 daily services per sense, duration: 3 hours)
  • Additional services in Asturias R1b Oviedo - Navia (2 daily services per sense, duration: 3 hours)

Asturias - Cantabria

• Oviedo - Santander (2 daily services per sense, duration: 5 hours)
  • Additional services in Asturias R2a Oviedo - Plains (4 daily services per sense, duration: 2 hours and 45 min)

Cantabria - Basque Country

• Santander - Bilbao-La Concordia (3 daily services per sense, duration: 3 hours)
  • Additional services in Cantabria as R3a Santander - Brown (4 daily services per sense, length of time: 1 hour and 15 min)
  • Additional services in the Basque Country R3b Bilbao-Concordia - Carranza (3 daily services per sense, duration: 1 hour and 15 min)

Castilla y León - Basque Country

• León - Bilbao-Concordia (1 daily services per sense, duration: 7 hours and a half)
  • Additional services in Castilla y León as R4a León - Guardo Apeadero (1 daily service per sense, duration: 3 hours and 5 min)

Rolling stock

Locomotives

Model	Image	Serial number	China	Year	Notes
1500 series		1501-1510 1511-1515	General Electric, Eire Babcock & WilcoxSestao	1964 1974	Known as GECo. The 1514 sold to Argentina. 1503, 1504, 1508 and 1502 sold to Madagascar. Currently there are only 1505 and 1510 (both in Aboño)
1600 series		1651-1660	M.T.M., Barcelona	1981	Under Alsthom license.
1900 series		1901-1917	FEVE, El Berrón CAF-SunsundeguiAlsasua	2002	Rebuilt from the 1000 Series.

Automotive

Model	Image	Serial number	China	Year	Notes
2400 series		2401-2479	MTM,	1983	Acquired by FEVE for other lines. The majority sold to the Costa Rican Institute of Railways (Costa Rica).
2600 series		2601-2624	CAF-Sunsundegui	1994	Manufactured from the reconstruction of 2300 series units.
2700 series		2701-	CAF-Sunsundegui	2009	New construction model. 23 commissioned units began in August 2009.
2900		2901-	CAF-Sunsundegui	2009	New construction model. Derived from 2700

Electrical units

Model	Image	Serial number	China	Year	Notes
3300 series		3301-3323	CAF-Sunsundegui	2009	They were part of the 3500 series, reformed with three-phase engines.
3500 series		3516-3537	CAF-Sunsundegui	1977
3600 series		3601-3624 3625-3642	CAF-Sunsundegui	2000	Manufactured from the reconstruction of 2600 series units.
3800 series		3801-3816	CAF-Sunsundegui	1992