Tickets for the AVE (high speed train) and long-distance trains on the regular network will be going up in price by about 2.75% on average, or as much as 3% for some journeys.

Rail operators will be applying this increase "immediately" in most cases, but certainly by May 15th, provided the price rises proposed in the company's board meeting on Tuesday, are approved.

The price increases on high-speed rail tickets come on the back of a 10.9% price rise on tickets for local and regional journeys, which came into force at the beginning of this month - the biggest price hike the sector had seen in the past few years.

In the case of the high-speed long-distance trains, the increase is considerably greater than the current rate of intflation (1.9%) and greater than last year's 2.3% rises. Nevertheless, it is lower than the 4% price rise Renfe applied to high-speed trains in 2010 and 2009.

Renfe calculates that all these increases in ticket prices will be translated into around 20 million euros of extra revenue this year.

High-speed (AVE) and long-distance (Renfe) trains carried 22.83 million passengers in 2011, 2.9% more than in 2010, the first increase in passenger numbers since 2008.