A total of 9000 extra seats are available on trains to cover the Madrid to BCN route. This was announced by Renfe to meet the mobility needs for the Mobile World Congress, MWC, which is approaching.
Renfe decided to increase the number of seats available for the high-tech congress, with a 15% discount on tickets for accredited attendees at the fair.
The city has already begun to make all the preparations for the start of the 2023 edition of the MWC at Fira de Barcelona’s Gran Via venue between Monday, February 27 and Thursday, March 2, 2023.
Due to the presence of an estimated 80,000 visitors, Renfe decided to offer a good number of extra seats.
As in the past, this year is no exception and Renfe joined the fair by signing an agreement with Global System for Mobile Communications, GSMA, the company organizing the congress.
The objective is to facilitate transportation to the fair.
9,000 extra seats on Renfe AVE trains
The additional seats also arise because Renfe is the official train of the fair and will offer these seats for the duration of the event.
The trains that will offer these seats are the AVE and Larga Distancia trains that run the Madrid – Barcelona route, with a frequency of almost 7% more than usual.
Mobile World Congress in BCN until 2030 and beyond
The MWC will be held in the Catalan capital until 2023 and for the following years, thanks to the agreement between the GSMA Association and Fira de la Ciutat.
In this way, Barcelona becomes the “permanent venue” of Mobile and after 2030, organizers and administrators foresee “tacit and automatic renewals” (unless otherwise expressed), to continue holding the Congress in the city.
On July 20 last year, the Mobile renewal agreement was signed, bringing benefits to Barcelona in the region of 3 billion euros.
According to the Fira de Barcelona, the renewal agreement guarantees 6 more editions of the Mobile World Congress.
For their part, GSMA representatives indicated that as organizers they have the firm intention and commitment to continue holding the event in the Catalan capital.
The Barcelona City Council indicates that the agreement is a commitment to the future with a vocation for stability and maintenance.
The signing of the agreement was attended by the First Vice President and Minister of Economic Affairs, the President of Fira de Barcelona, the Director General of GSMA, the President of Turisme de Barcelona and the First Deputy Mayor, among others.
The Mobile World Congress is the congress with the greatest impact on the logistics sector at European and even international level, which is back to normal after the pandemic.