Last week, the Council of Ministers approved the decree that will launch the free Renfe subscriptions, a measure that Pedro Sánchez already advanced in the Debate on the State of the Nation. Although this aid to public transport will come into force on September 1, Renfe opens this Monday the registration to benefit from free season tickets. Below are all the details of this measure, taken to deal with the crisis caused by the war in Ukraine.
When and how can free subscriptions be requested?
From Monday, August 8, travelers will be able to register both on the web and in the Renfe application to benefit from the help. This step is prior to purchase of subscriptions free, which can be held from August 24. A specific subscription will be created for each Cercanías core and for each Media Distancia origin-destination.
What kind of services will the gratuity affect?
The measure promoted by the Government will affect the services of Cercanías, Rodalies and Medium Distance trains conventional. They will all have a 100% bonus, so they will be free. However, in the case of the Middle Distance, the subscription must always be used between the same two points. In addition, Medium Distance journeys on high-speed routes, that is, Avant tickets will have a 50% discount of the cost.
Therefore, the measure does not apply to the AVE or to collective public transport that depends on the autonomous communities and municipalities, for example, the metro or bus services. In any case, the latter continue to receive direct aid for reduce by 30% its price announced on June 25 and that may be increased by up to 50% if the regional or local officials contribute their own funds. With this aid, the Executive intends to promote the use of public transport to avoid the cost of the increase in energy and fuel prices for citizens.
What are the Media Distancia services?
Medium Distance trains are those that carry out regional connections, linking different cities and localities of each autonomous community that have rail services with their provincial or regional capital. Are journey lengths less than 300 kmfor example, Madrid-Avila.
What requirements must be fulfilled?
Users of Cercanías, Rodalies and medium distance who can benefit from free subscriptions they must leave a depositwhich varies depending on the type of transport, to ensure that they do a minimum of four monthly trips and thus avoid scams.
Those who want access to free subscriptions in Cercanías and Rodalies they must leave a deposit of 10 euros, money that will be returned to them after four months of validity of this measure. If what you want is the season ticket for trains conventional medium distance, the deposit will be 20 euroswhich will also be returned if more than 16 trips are made, and can be used on a single route.
How long will this measure last?
Free subscriptions will start to apply on September 1 and will remain until December 31 of this year. The bonus will not be retroactive, so it will not affect bonuses that have been purchased before the announced date.