The ‘Young Summer’ program of the Ministry of Transport, Mobility and Urban Agenda (Mitma) has facilitated that almost 73,000 young people between 18 and 30 years of age have made almost 170,000 trips to or from Cantabria this summer thanks to discounts for travel of up to 90% on bus and train tickets approved by the Government of Spain.
The delegate of the Government in Cantabria, Ainoa Quiñones, pointed out that the data reflect that the program has had “very good acceptance on the part of young people” and recalled that the impulse of this ‘Young Summer’ program is framed in the policies of Mitma to “promote and facilitate the use of transport at a time marked by inflationary tensions that affect, among others, the passenger transport sector, and by the fight against climate change and the objectives of improving air quality”.
Thus, thanks to this program, Quiñones has praised that “it has been possible to facilitate leisure trips during the summer by using a safer, more reliable, comfortable, economical and sustainable means of transport than the private vehicle”.
At the same time, he stressed that the “triple objective” sought by the Government of Spain with the launch of ‘Young Summer’ has been achieved: to contribute to enhancing the learning and independence of young people, strengthening personal relations and European feeling, and to help consolidate the recovery of the tourism sector and the cultural sector after the pandemic.
The government delegate in Cantabria pointed out that 85.7% of the journeys made between June 15 and August 15 with origin or destination Cantabria were made by bus (143,363) and the rest by rail (23,886).
Among the most popular routes, he has indicated that those that link Cantabria with Basque Country stand out, which is 39.3% of all trips (65,803). The journeys between Cantabria and Madrid are 26.7% of the total (44,574), and the journeys between Cantabria and Castilla y León are 17.9% of the total (29,859).
In Spain as a whole, the ‘Young Summer’ programme facilitated 2.6 million trips, benefiting around 950,000 young people and girls between the ages of 18 and 30.