The Minister of Transport and Sustainable Mobility, Óscar Puente, chose this Monday to end the free vouchers on Medium Distance and Cercanías trains, which would end on December 31 in the event of non-renewal. Thus, he defended new formulas to reward repeat users of public transport.
In an interview with Cadena Ser, the minister said that the renewal of free vouchers on trains will depend “on budgetary negotiations and” the decisions of the Spanish government. “I can foresee that my position, of course, is that this policy needs to change,” Puente said.
The head of Transport explained that the policy of free public transport was temporary, due to inflation in Spain, and aimed to “relieve the family economy.”
“The commitment to public transport must be above all in quality, in comfort, in punctuality. This is where the effort must be made. I am one of those who believe that we will gain users public transport, not depending on the price of the ticket, quite reduced compared to the private vehicle, but depending if we give the user more quality, more reliability and more frequencies“, he argued.
In this context, Puente stressed that the ministry must make efforts to maintain social bonuses and also reward users who use public transport the most. “We are considering a form of payment in arrears, depending on the number of uses you have made, the price will be cheaper. In other words, the recurring user will have a much better price,” he said. .
Claim in Ouigo
Asked about the delivery of the 188,000 signatures that Greenpeace gave him to request a single subscription throughout Spain, Puente indicated that This scenario is the “desirable” scenario they are working with for 2026.
On the other hand, when asked about the complaint that Renfe was going to present to the European Commission against Ouigo, the minister assured that the company’s legal counsel was working on it and that he would not delay raising it.
Puente denounced that Ouigo “has enormous losses” and also “this leads to losses on the rest of the competitors.” “This means that, obviously, on very profitable corridors, it operates in certain cases well below its costs. How do you cover these losses? With capital increases which are essentially guaranteed by the French State. In other words, we are in competition between companies”, he criticized, for what he considers to be “absolutely unviable competition” in the medium and long term.
The minister acknowledged that railway liberalization had negative effectsMeasures such as “a significant increase in supply and a reduction in prices”, which he says will not be possible in the long term “with the pace of losses in which he is involved”. “Prices have been falling for a while, but that’s not going to last and the system is going to suffer because in the end the only thing it’s going to generate is harm to those who have to support it ” he said.
As he explained, Renfe was until now the only company operating high speed in Spain and bringing in millions of euros in profits. “was employed to provide services in corridors that were not so profitable.” “It’s over. Now there is no longer one, there are three companies and between them they lose 230 million euros per year. There is no longer any surplus to provide services in areas that are not very profitable and that will cause everyone to suffer.” of the provision of rail service in areas where transporting a train is not so interesting from an economic point of view”, he warned.
