Renfe has issued 6,686 free subscriptions of Neighbourhoods and Media Distancia in Cantabria during its first month of validity in 2023, after the approval of the measure by the Government of Spain on December 27 to travel between January 1 and April 30.

Of the total number of free tickets issued in Cantabria, 90.17% (6,029) correspond to tickets for travel in the vicinity. 9.83% of tickets issued in Cantabria (657) are tickets for travel on Media Distancia trains.

In the total of Spain, Renfe has issued 1,520,000 free subscriptions in Neighbourhoods, Rodalies and Media Distancia and 50% Avant Credits.

To speed up the purchase of subscriptions and avoid unnecessary waits, the purchase of subscriptions is possible through the Renfe Proximity app or, in the case of Media Distancia and Avant subscriptions, through the web www.renfe.com. To do this, the customer must be registered in advance.

Success deterrent measures misuse

The irregular use of free Media Distancia de Renfe subscriptions has decreased considerably, going from 20% last year to an average of 2.5% this year.

The irregular use of subscriptions occurred last year, mainly, by formalizing some users with a Media Distancia subscription, trips that they subsequently did not make.

The significant decrease this year has been due to the measures approved by the Ministry of Transport, Mobility and Urban Agenda (MITMA), which entered into force on December 7, which modified the operation of sale and use of the free multi-travel titles of Renfe’s conventional Media Distancia, which restricts the formalization of trips, the acquisition of subscriptions and penalize the repeated irregular uses, among other actions.

In the case of conventional Medium Distance rail services, users must purchase a different pass for each origin/destination journey, which will be valid for unlimited travel between the origin and destination requested by the customer, in both senses.

Bail Back

Travelers who have used the free Short Stay, or Media Distancia subscription in 2022 and have met the conditions of use, are gradually and progressively being refunded from January 9 for those who have made the payment by credit card. All these people will be refunded the amount in the same current account to which they have linked the credit card with which the payment was made. In the event that the tickets were purchased in cash, travelers can go from the 15th of January to the outlets of the stations.