The Government extends for one year the free provision of Neighbourhoods, Rodalies, Conventional Media Distancia and State bus lines

• The Council of Ministers approves free Renfe subscriptions and 50% discounts on Avant services for regular travellers in 2024. The titles can be requested in the next few days. • The bonus of 100% of the subscriptions and multi-travel titles of the state competition bus services is maintained for 12 months. • Users must purchase a title for each calendar quarter of the year, pay the corresponding deposit and make at least 16 trips during the validity of each subscription. • High-performance services between Murcia and Alicante, and the Avant between Ourense and A Coruña will be free next year. Also in the Madrid-Salamanca point-to-point relations. • The annual savings for travelers who purchased monthly subscriptions for the line between Ourense and A Coruña amounts to 4,966 euros. • With the beginning of this measure, there has been a boost in the use of public transport that needs to be consolidated to deepen the use of more sustainable mobility alternatives.

December 27, 2023.- The Government has today approved the extension during 2024 of free Short Distance, Rodalies and Media Distancia services and state-owned bus lines for regular travelers, as well as discounts of 50% of Avant subscriptions. In particular, the Council of Ministers, on the proposal of the Ministry of Transport and Sustainable Mobility, has given the green light to a new Royal Decree-Law to respond to the economic and social consequences of the war, which includes such measures to encourage the use of collective public transport and thus accelerate the change to healthier, safer and sustainable mobility, contribute to reduce polluting emissions and guarantee the accessibility and affordability of transport. All this in a context marked by uncertainty in the evolution of energy prices due to the conflict in Ukraine and the Middle East and overcoming the effects of the COVID-19 crisis and the high increase in inflation.

The extension of the discounts for one year, including free proximity services, responds to the commitment of the Government to guarantee daily forced mobility, contributing to promote territorial and social cohesion, and to the great reception of the measure, applied since September 2022. For example, in the last quarter of 2023 Renfe has issued more than 2.4 million free and discounted subscriptions throughout Spain.

Thus, with the beginning of these bonuses, an impulse has been observed in the use of public transport that is necessary to consolidate in order to deepen the use of more sustainable mobility alternatives to the detriment of the private vehicle.

For example, the savings in the whole year 2024 for a family (couple with two children over 14 years old) that uses the train from the outskirts of Madrid, from the ‘crown’ or B3 area (one of the most used), will be 3,297 euros, 274.7 euros a month. The savings, under similar mobility conditions, will be 3,357 euros in Barcelona, almost 280 euros per month; and 5,585 euros in Valencia, 465.4 euros per month. Likewise, a Sevillian student, on his routes to the university of Seville can save 920 euros per year in the case of a user of the study pass, which covers the 6 areas of the Vicinity of Seville.

A traveler using the conventional medium-distance route between Valladolid and Palencia will save 1,252 euros during the entire year of validity of the measure. In the case of the line between Ourense and A Coruña, the annual savings for travelers who purchased subscriptions to make 40 trips per month, amounts to 4,966 euros. In addition, a person who travels every Friday between Seville and Palma del Rio in a medium distance train, and returns on Sundays, saves 756.8 euros per year with discounts.

The new four-month titles can be requested through the Renfe Neighbourhoods app and, in the case of Media Distancia subscriptions, on the Renfe website and through the usual channels in the coming days, after the publication in the BOE of the Royal Decree-Law.

The text regulates the extension of one year of bonuses and multi-travel certificates for these Renfe railway services, which can be purchased on the operator’s website from the publication of the Royal Decree-Law in the Official State Gazette (BOE) and the signing of the resolution of the Secretary of State, which includes the conditions of marketing, use and validity of the bonuses, in the Ministry’s electronic headquarters. The specific moment of purchase of the subscriptions will be communicated by Renfe through its usual information channels.

The Ministry will allocate 600 million euros to compensate Renfe for the discounts applied and the costs of implementing the measure. This figure rises to 680 million if the gratuitousness of the State competition bus lines is included.

Extension of Renfe free subscriptions

With a view to 2024, Renfe will maintain the specific multi-trip titles for each centre of the Neighbourhoods and for each origin-destination of the conventional medium-distance services with a validity of four months corresponding to each natural semester of the year. Thus, a subscription valid until April 30 will remain available to users, another valid until August 31 and a third valid until December 31.

The conditions for the purchase and use of free subscriptions are similar to those of the current titles, although Renfe will reinforce anti-fraud measures, measures that will be accompanied by information campaigns for the citizen. Thus, the user must be registered on the Renfe website with his or her ID to request the subscriptions, deposit a deposit of 10 euros, in the event that he or she acquires a title of Neighbourhoods or Rodalies, and 20 euros for conventional Media Distancia services, which will be returned at the end of each semester, provided that the conditions are met, such as having made at least 16 trips in the period of validity of the subscriptions.

As for the services of proximity between Palma del Río and Villa del Río, Illescas and Fuenlabrada, Malaga-El Jet-Caminito del Rey, Murcia-Cartagena and Medina del Campo–Valladolid–Palencia, for next year the conditions of the fertilizers of the Neighbourhoods will be applicable, so the deposit will be 10 euros. In 2023 they were assimilable as a medium distance.

These free subscriptions (with a deposit of 20 euros) of Media Distancia can be used in the services Avant point by point between Madrid and Salamanca and in the relationship A Coruña - Ourense, which are provided on the network of conventional width, as well as in the relationship Murcia-Alicante, which is provided through the network of Atlas Servicios.

Renfe will make more information about the conditions of purchase, use and validity of the subscriptions available to travelers through its website.

Free of charge for bus lines

On the other hand, the Royal Decree-Law extends the gratuitousness of subscriptions and multi-travel titles to state-owned bus lines in order to avoid asymmetries between the different modes of land transport.

Thus, between January 1 and December 31, 2024, recurring users for a specific origin-destination journey will be entitled to a bonus of 100% of the ticket price, provided that they meet the following conditions:

• They must make at least 16 trips during the four-month period, between January 1 and December 31.
• That they have been registered in the place that enables each concessionaire company of the service that serves the specific origin-destination, in order to obtain a unique personalized code (in QR and/or alphanumeric format).

The Secretary of State will soon publish a resolution to establish the conditions for the marketing, use, validity and expiration of travel certificates, the limitation on the number of discounted certificates, as well as the obligations that must be fulfilled by the concessionaires and those necessary to establish the operation.

50% Avant Subscriptions

Finally, the 50% discount for recurrent users of Avant railway services, declared as a public service obligation, is extended for one year. For example, if the price of a monthly Avant pass of 50 trips for the route Barcelona – Lleida amounts to 576.20 euros, the annual cost would be 6,914 euros, so with the discount of 50%, the user can save about 3,457 euros per year.

Thus, a 50% discount is maintained on all Avant multi-travel titles (Plus Card Pass, Plus Card 10 or Plus Card 10-45), which are sold between January 1 and December 31, 2023, with specific conditions of use.

In this sense, although the different types of payment have a different period of use and validity, the titles acquired next year may not be used after January 31, 2024.

In the case of the Avants, Renfe will also accentuate the anti-fraud measures, which will take place in the first days of January.

It is important to note that the Government converted into Public Service Obligations (PSO) 13 high-speed medium-distance lines, 12 of which connect to a city of Castilla y León: Madrid – Palencia, Madrid – Zamora, León – Valladolid, Burgos – Madrid, León – Palencia, Burgos – Valladolid, Ourense – Zamora, Palencia – Valladolid, León – Segovia, Segovia – Zamora, Palencia – Segovia, Medina del Campo – Zamora and Huesca – Zaragoza.