All types of services reported an upswing in demand, including subsidised suburban rail, regional and long distance.
High-speed services carried 22.8 million passengers, an increase of 2.9%, and just short of the previous record of 23 million passengers set in 2008. Ridership on suburban services rose 3% to 412.6 million passengers, but remained static for the medium-distance division, which carried 32.5 million passengers.
Railfreight subsidiary Renfe Mercancías notched up volumes of 17.3 million tonnes, an increase of 7.8%. Of this, 14.4 million tonnes represented domestic movements and the rest international traffic, which grew by 13%. Freight traffic is still significantly lower than the pre-recession peak of 2007, when volumes reached 25 million tonnes.
