Renfe has now revealed how its trains will look under the corporate rebrand, which is being rolled out progressively. The scheme marks a radical shift from the one used since the late 1980s.
Renfe chairman Álvaro Fernández Heredia posted the new liveries for the passenger subsidiary’s rolling stock on his X account this morning.
These schemes will be applied to the operator’s trains once the rebrand is implemented. The proposal departs from the aesthetic used since the late 1980s, which featured a predominantly white body with stripes and decorative elements tied to each service. Excessive white has been one of the most frequent criticisms from enthusiasts and experts.
The proposal divides the fleet into three families: Cercanías (suburban), Regional and Intercity, and high-speed. Each family has a common base colour, complemented by specific decorative elements.
This approach marks a shift from the Renfe Operadora livery of the mid-2000s. Because of liberalisation, that livery sought to give all Renfe trains a shared look (white background and purple stripe) to set them apart from competitors. The Avlo scheme broke with that principle, but swapped white for corporate purple, which still makes it clear the train is a Renfe one.
The new schemes incorporate the traditional Renfe “cookie” (galleta), restored as part of this brand refresh.
Cercanías: “Morse” goes fleet-wide
The Cercanías livery is the one already seen on Class 453 and 446 units. Nicknamed “Morse”, it keeps white as the base and spells out the word Renfe in Morse code using red circles and “pills”.
The red is darker than the one used so far. Today’s presentation confirms that what appeared to be a trial across two series will form the visual language of the new brand identity as a whole.
Intercity and Regional: purple takes centre stage
The Intercity and Regional brands adopt corporate purple as their base colour, with orange circles and pill outlines, a nod to the Trenes Regionales brand of the 1990s, even though Intercity services are not PSO (public service obligation) trains.
This livery will be applied to services that are changing names. Intercity absorbs the current Alvia services, while Regional groups together Regional Exprés, Proximidad and Media Distancia.
One technical question remains: how will air conditioning cope in trains finished in such dark tones? It is also unclear whether this livery will be seen on Class 130 trains. These variable-gauge units have so far worked Alvia and Euromed services. Alvia is being folded into Intercity and Euromed into AVE.
High speed: the biggest change
High speed is the range that changes most. AVE, Avlo and Avant will share a very dark blue base, with each brand keeping its own variants to stand apart.
AVE opts for a gradient based on the “wings” of the V, in a lighter shade of blue.
Avlo complements the livery with the service name in sky blue.
Avant, for its part, is visually linked to Regional and Intercity. It uses the circles and pill outlines of those services, but in a greyish blue instead of orange.
An image to match the new offer
The redesign coincides with the simplification of brands under the new ticketing system. When the transition ends on 25 January 2027, the Alvia, Proximidad, Regional Exprés and Media Distancia brands will disappear. Euromed will go only half-way: it will be merged into AVE as AVE Euromed.
The new liveries will therefore be the public face of that reorganisation, itself the visible side of a big change in the ticketing system and of the improvement in service quality that Renfe says it is delivering.
No timetable has been given for applying the liveries to trains. Given the gradual rollout on Cercanías, the new look may soon appear on other trains.