Nearly 500,000 people have already applied for a free rail pass for regional and commuter trains in Spain as part of measures to support purchasing power, the Spanish government announced on Thursday.
This device, which will come into force this Thursday for a period of four months, offers free subscriptions on regional and suburban public lines managed by Renfe, the Spanish equivalent of SNCF.
Its objective is to support the purchasing power of Spaniards, strongly affected by galloping inflation, which has been above 10% since June, a level not seen since the mid-1980s.
As of August 31, “half a million people have registered on the Renfe website” to benefit from this measure, the President of the Socialist Government, Pedro Sánchez, assured this Thursday on Cadena Ser. Among them, 425,000 have already received his free pass, he said.
75 million trips
The measure, which could be extended if necessary beyond December 31, according to the Government, concerns commuter networks in peri-urban areas of large cities such as Madrid, Barcelona, Valencia or Seville, but also commuter trains. middle distance.
To benefit from this subscription, users must deposit a deposit of 10 or 20 euros, which they can then recover as long as they make a minimum of 16 trips at the end of December, Renfe specifies in a press release.
According to the Spanish railway company, 75 million trips will be free.
Parallel to this measure, the Government has released an allocation of 221 million euros so that local authorities can reduce the cost of bus, tram and metro passes by almost 30% in the main cities of the country.
This device, which came into force there also on Thursday, should encourage Spaniards to use public transport to reduce their fuel consumption, the cost of which has increased considerably since the start of the war in Ukraine.
Tax on extraordinary profits of large energy companies
To finance this measure, the Spanish Government will rely on the tax on the extraordinary profits of the large energy companies. In June, the government had already reduced the price of metro, bus and tram tickets in Spain by 30%.
These are all measures that will be financed by the exceptional tax about the extraordinary profits of the large energy companies announced a few weeks ago. Enough to recover about “two billion euros” per year in 2023 and 2024, said the head of government.
Remember that other countries have taken steps to almost free transport with primarily ecological objectives especially in germanyin Austria with the Climaticket, in Luxembourg or even in Switzerland.
But this free service has its inconvenience with the risk of saturation of many trains like in germany. The rail network must be able to expand. the spanish newspaper public believes that “doubts” hover over this “ability of the State to increase frequencies and improve services.”
Source: BFM TV
