Following the official inauguration of the service on Monday by the King of Spain, regular passengers on the first high-speed train to leave Murcia for Madrid on Tuesday were delayed, only by 4 minutes, but considering the normal punctuality of trains in Spain that was a little disappointing for some.
The first train was scheduled to depart Murcia at 06:25, but due to a fault with one of the luggage control machines, the departure was delayed.
There were 302 passengers on board from Murcia, with another 15 joining at Orihuela, and 26 jumping on in Elche. Therefore, a total of 343 passengers were taken to Madrid on the train which had capacity for 354, making it almost full.
In total, on the first day, 2,100 passengers travelled on the new service, according to Renfe, of which 1,900 began in Murcia.
The service was launched with a special offer ticket price of 19 euro each way for the first 30,000 tickets, thus bringing in just short of 40,000 euro on the first day.
