The Ministry of Transport and Sustainable Mobility is studying measures for young people, frequent travelers and people in vulnerable situations that will be applied in the event that the government decides to withdraw the free tickets for Cercanías and Media Distancia that have been launched with takeoff. inflation, which now appears to be under control.
The removal of this aid for traveling with Renfe has not yet been taken, according to Minister Óscar Puente in an interview with TVE. “This is a decision that we have not yet made within the government. This is something we deliberate on. We will make a decision before the end of the year,” he said.
“The ministry considered this measure positive from a fiscal point of view, at a time when inflation was putting a lot of pressure on the family economy, but it is not the most appropriate from the point of view of public transport” , justified Puente. . “We believe that the economic commitment that should be placed in transport must focus on quality, on increasing supply, frequencies and comfort.”
If these free subscriptions are removed, the alternative seems clear. “I also say that free subscriptions, if it has to be removed, will not be in exchange for anything. There will be measures that will continue to support recurring users, the most economically vulnerable, the youngest,” Puente said.
“We are working on alternatives that allow us to grant reductions to users who use public transport to go to work, to their place of study every day, to younger people who have more difficulty paying public transport, to people who find themselves in a situation of social vulnerability. “These are the three groups that we think we need to work on,” he added. “The end result, if generalized free travel is. deleted, if this is finally achieved”, will imply “the maintenance of aid policies, which are the most interesting and which concern the line of public transport that we want to follow”, he summarized.
The train, at its best
The Minister of Transport emphasized once again that the railway is experiencing its best moment in Spain, despite the problems encountered this summer throughout the territory. “This sentence is not a provocation, we can be proud of the railway situation,” he said in the aforementioned interview.
“It is the reality, indisputable”, assured Puente, but it is “compatible with the fact that we have incidents”, he clarified, “they arise from the investment which is made” and the works infrastructure with “upside down” stations. “, he admitted.
“On Friday we surpassed the record for high-speed travelers,” he noted. In addition, over the last five years, 750 kilometers have been added to the high-speed network, placing Spain far ahead of the rest of the European Union countries. “We will continue to improve in the years to come, with new trains,” he recalled. At the same time, incidents will be “reduced”.
