Costa News Spain Breaking News | English News in Spain.
Wednesday, 29 January 2020, 10:30 Updated 10:48h.
This Thursday, the 30th of January, it’s official that Spain’s Renfe state railway company will offer its free passes to short and mid-distance travel. BOE (Spain’s official state gazette), published just today the new omnibus decrete agreed between central governments and Catalonia’s pro-independence Junts party. It covers 29 social actions, including subsidies to public transport.
Tuesday, the measures were approved after a new law royal decree was passed, which included changes in the social aspects. Under the same conditions, free travel cards will again be available for local and intermediate-distance trains as well for long-distance busses. Last week, it was impossible to purchase such tickets.
The public service obligation to offer a 50% discount on recurrent rail users will remain in place. A 50% discount is available on all multi-journey tickets sold by Avant (Tarjeta plus Pass, Tarjeta plus 10 or Tarjeta + 10-45), with certain conditions. In the meantime, commuter trains will run free in Cantabria, Asturias, and the Canary Islands.
The conditions of acquiring and using the free travel passes are the same as those that apply to current tickets. Users must be registered on the Renfe website with their DNI, after which, to apply for the passes, they need to submit a deposit of 10 euros for a Cercanías or Rodalies ticket; another 10 euros for Services de Proximidad, and 20 euros for conventional Media Distancia services, which will be returned at the end of each four-month period, as long as the conditions are met (having completed at least 16 journeys during the period of validity of the passes).
Other Subsidised Services
High-demand services between Murcia and Alicante, Avant services between Ourense and A Coruña, and Madrid-Salamanca point-to-point services will continue to be free of charge during the first half of the year.
Public bicycle rental services remain included in the public transportation subsidies with a discount of 50%.
The government will continue subsidising 30% of the minimum 50% discount for regional transport. The other 20% is paid by the region. Madrid regional government, as an exception, has decided to subsidise 30 percent, so the total discount can reach 60 percent on monthly tickets.
These regional discounts, which will be 40% from July onwards, and last for the entire second half of the calendar year, will be financed equally (20%) by both the state and the region. A single monthly pass of 20 euros will be created for the whole country for all the Cercanías networks.
