Spain Iryo Rail Strike To Hit Madrid Routes Dec 5 8

High speed rail travelers planning trips in Spain over the Constitution Day long weekend now face a new layer of uncertainty, because a Spain Iryo rail strike will run from December 5 to 8 and thin out high speed trains on some of the country's busiest corridors. The walkouts mainly affect Iryo services linking Madrid with Barcelona, Valencia, Alicante, Malaga, Seville, and Zaragoza during nearly full day strike windows. Anyone holding tight connections, separate tickets, or fixed holiday plans on those dates should start building in extra buffer time, shifting to other operators, or moving trips to non strike days where possible.

The Spain Iryo rail strike in early December will reduce high speed departures on Iryo's network despite a government order that roughly 73 percent of services must still run, which in practice means about one in four trains will be cancelled and remaining departures will be fuller and more fragile.

Iryo's December strike block runs from December 5 to 8, 2025, and is the second phase of a seven day action that began with stoppages on November 25, 26, and 27. The strikes are called by rail unions CGT and Alferro over stalled negotiations on Iryo's first company wide collective agreement, and they cover crew, maintenance, customer service, control room, and office staff across all bases. While some Spanish reporting stresses that train drivers themselves are not formally part of the stoppage, the breadth of support roles involved means schedules and on the day operations can still be hit hard.

Strike dates, routes, and the December holiday context

The December 5 to 8 window is not random. It overlaps Spain's Constitution Day on December 6 and the Feast of the Immaculate Conception on December 8, which together form one of the country's classic long weekends, or puente de diciembre. Many travelers use this period for long weekend city breaks, family visits, and early winter holidays, with Iryo trains carrying heavy demand in and out of Madrid.

Iryo runs competing high speed services on corridors that radiate from Madrid toward Barcelona, Valencia, Alicante, Malaga, Cordoba, Seville, and Zaragoza, often sharing the same high speed tracks as Renfe's AVE and Avlo brands and SNCF backed Ouigo Spain. Strike trackers and business media describe this action as nationwide within Iryo's network, rather than limited to a single region, so its effects will be felt anywhere Iryo normally operates.

In practical terms, the most exposed routes will be the densest ones. Madrid to Barcelona and Madrid to Valencia carry heavy business and leisure traffic, while Madrid to Malaga and Madrid to Seville are backbone routes into Andalusia that often connect with beach stays and inland tours. Iryo also links Madrid with Alicante and stops at intermediate cities such as Zaragoza, which means any cancelled train can create gaps for multiple destinations at once.

What minimum services of 73 percent really mean

Spain's Ministry of Transport has issued an official minimum services resolution for the Iryo strike that explicitly covers November 25 to 27 and December 5, 6, 7, and 8. The order sets minimum services for high speed and long distance trains at around 73 percent of the normal timetable, a figure repeated in company statements and regional media coverage.

On paper, 73 percent sounds generous. In practice, it still means that approximately one in four planned trains can be cancelled, and the ones that remain will be expected to absorb passengers from suppressed departures. Early strike days in late November saw Iryo running all trains assigned to the minimum service plan and then rebooking affected travelers onto those services, a strategy that kept the network moving but increased crowding and reduced flexibility.

Union sources paint a more contentious picture, arguing that such a high minimum service level undermines the right to strike and hides the scale of worker participation. CGT has claimed follow rates above 80 percent among eligible staff despite the 73 percent floor, and has accused Iryo of inflating staffing data when negotiating the minimums with the ministry. For travelers, the politics matter less than the operational result, which is a timetable that looks fairly normal at a glance but has enough strategic gaps to make missed trains and last minute changes much more painful.

How Renfe and Ouigo fit into the picture

Renfe and Ouigo services are not directly part of the Iryo strike action, and there is no parallel national rail strike announced for December 5 to 8. That means most Renfe AVE, Avlo, and Ouigo Spain high speed trains on the same corridors should operate normally, at least as far as labor relations are concerned.

However, when one major operator cuts capacity by roughly a quarter, the others tend to absorb the shock. Renfe and Ouigo will likely see higher loads on Madrid to Barcelona, Madrid to Valencia, and Madrid to Andalusia trains as Iryo customers search for alternatives, just as they did during the November strike days. Price sensitive travelers may find that the cheapest advance fares have vanished on key departure times, leaving only higher fare buckets, while some popular trains sell out completely.

If you are already booked on Renfe or Ouigo for this period, that spillover risk is a reason to lock in seat reservations and avoid unnecessary changes. If you are still choosing between operators, it can be worth paying slightly more for a departure outside the busiest midday windows or choosing trains that connect you into Madrid or Barcelona earlier than absolutely necessary, especially when a downstream flight is involved.

Planning around the strike if you are already booked on Iryo

Iryo has indicated that it will maintain strike day timetables that reflect the legally mandated minimum services and that affected passengers can either be moved to another Iryo train or request a refund. Details may vary by fare product, but the pattern during the November stoppages was straightforward, with passengers notified of cancellations and offered alternative departures where space existed.

If you hold an Iryo ticket for December 5 to 8, the first step is to verify whether your exact train number appears on Iryo's minimum service lists for those dates. If it does, treat the departure as likely but still build in extra time around it. If it does not, assume it will be cancelled and look at three options in parallel, rebooking onto another Iryo service, switching to Renfe or Ouigo, or adjusting your travel dates.

Travelers connecting to or from flights need to be especially conservative. At Adolfo Suárez Madrid Barajas Airport (MAD) and Barcelona El Prat Airport (BCN), air schedules will continue to run independently of the rail action, but any misfire on your incoming or outgoing train can translate into a missed check in cutoff or tight immigration queue. For long haul or non flexible tickets, aim to arrive at your departure city several hours earlier than you would in normal conditions, or even the night before.

Alternatives for long distance trips

For some travelers, especially those crossing Spain on long itineraries, the safest option may be to avoid high speed rail on the peak strike days altogether. Flying between Madrid and Barcelona, Madrid and Malaga, or Madrid and Seville will not be immune from holiday congestion, but airlines are not part of this dispute, and schedules should be less directly affected. Bus operators and long distance coaches will also provide options, though they will face their own holiday traffic on major highways.

Another strategy is to flip the order of stops. Instead of traveling Madrid to Barcelona on December 6, for example, you could bring that leg forward to December 4 or push it to December 9, then shuffle hotel nights or day trips accordingly. Many city breaks allow that kind of flexibility if you are willing to live with a slightly different sequence.

For travelers who must use Iryo during the strike window, booking earlier or later departures than you would normally choose and avoiding tight onward commitments is the most realistic compromise. Treat any separate tickets, such as self built connections between Iryo trains or between rail and low cost flights, as high risk products that could unravel if a single component is cancelled or heavily delayed.

Background, how Iryo and Spain's rail liberalization got here

Iryo is Spain's only fully privately capitalized high speed operator, backed by a consortium that includes Trenitalia and Spanish partners, and it entered the market as part of a broader liberalization that opened selected high speed corridors to competition with Renfe. The current dispute revolves around the company's first collective agreement, with unions arguing that pay scales have been frozen since 2022, that workload has increased under a multipurpose staffing model, and that job classifications do not adequately recognize different functions and responsibilities.

The seven day strike plan, split between late November and early December, is designed both to coincide with Iryo's third anniversary and to maximize leverage during important travel peaks. How quickly the company and unions can move toward an agreement after December 8 will determine whether travelers face further rolling actions later in the winter.

How this article fits with earlier coverage

Adept Traveler has already covered the initial Iryo strike days and the broader December pattern in two pieces, Spain High Speed Rail Strike To Cut Madrid Trains Nov 25 27 and Spain High Speed Rail Strike Cuts Iryo Services. Those articles remain useful for understanding how November's walkouts affected real passengers and how Renfe and Ouigo absorbed some of the displaced demand. This update zooms in on the December 5 to 8 wave, when holiday travel volumes will be higher and the cost of a misstep, from a missed long haul flight to a lost holiday weekend, is likely to be greater.

Sources

• Resolución de servicios mínimos para la huelga en Iryo, Ministerio de Transportes y Movilidad Sostenible
• Los sindicatos de Iryo convocan siete días de huelga durante el puente de diciembre, Cinco Días
• Huelga de trenes Iryo en el puente de diciembre por un convenio digno, El Comun
• Servicios mínimos del 73 por ciento en la huelga de Iryo que afecta al puente de diciembre, Telemadrid
• Iryo prevé servicios mínimos del 73 por ciento para la huelga de personal de oficinas y mantenimiento, El Obrero
• First days of Iryo strike end with low participation, Trenvista
• Strikes in Spain, Strike Tracker
• Spain's rail network in crisis, Iryo strikes threaten major disruption during peak winter travel season, Travel And Tour World
• Spain High Speed Rail Strike Cuts Iryo Services, The Adept Traveler