Renfe opens this Monday the deadline to request free season tickets of Cercanías, Rodalies and Conventional Medium Distance. From that day on, users will be able to register on the Renfe website to acquire these cards, which will be marketed starting next August 24 and during the entire period of validity of the measure, until December 31 of this year.
This was announced by the Minister of Transport, Mobility and Urban Agenda, Raquel Sánchez, through her Twitter account.
“Next Monday, August 8 @Renfe will open its website to register and, thus, be able to acquire the free Suburban, Rodalies and Media Distancia Convencional subscriptions from August 24.
I share the interview he did to me @SaraLedoR in @the newspaper: https://t.co/IpR9ZJKSfe pic.twitter.com/Xlmsy7zKfb“
– Raquel Sánchez (@raquelsjimenez) August 4, 2022
Renfe is still outlining the system, but with this advance it intends to give citizens some advance notice and thus avoid queues and the collapse of its website, where a space will also be opened with information to request these season tickets, as indicated by the minister.
The Government calculates that it will be able to benefit 75 million trips and, in addition to affecting the current users of these transport routes, it will be able to attract between 15% and 20% more travelershas assured.
These tickets, as the Government has already announced, will include free multi-trip tickets for Cercanías, Rodalies and Media Distancia, as well as a 50% discount for Avant tickets. Also subsidies to reduce the cost of regional public transport and a 100% discount for trains in the Balearic Islands and 50% for buses in the Canary Islands.
It should be remembered that users must pay an initial payment as a deposit to be able to acquire these titles, an amount that will later be returned by the Executive if they meet the requirement of making a minimum number of trips.
The Government will monitor the increase in demand
In an interview for the newspaper Public, the minister explained that “we are at levels of demand and occupation that place us at 20% of what existed before the pandemic and, therefore, there is that margin”. A) Yes, The Government will monitor the increase in demand and how peak hours unfold, in order to take the appropriate measures at those peaks. To this end, he has indicated that there are ways to make frequencies and schedules more flexible, and that Renfe plans to hire 1,000 people to apply the measure effectively.
This mechanism will cost the State 200 million euros, although it is a provisional estimate, as indicated, which will be adjusted when the Executive sees if there has been an increase in demand.
He has ruled out that it is a populist measure and, in exchange, defends that it will help the middle classes and “ensure that they are not always the same ones who pay the consequences of the crisis.” In addition, he has defended that he will promote the use of public transport in a climate emergency context.