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FREE rail passes for outer suburban and medium-distance lines can now be obtained online, and will become valid for use from September 1, confirms transport minister Raquel Sánchez.
Lasting four months, the move – financed by €200 million in public funds – is expected to save residents nationwide the cost of 75 million train journeys before New Year's Eve.
The Cercanías lines – often referred to as the Rodalies in the Comunidad Valenciana and Catalunya – typically cover up to six zones radiating out from a provincial capital city, spanning about 70 kilometres or roughly an hour's journey.
Prices per journey normally range from approximately €2 to €6 one way, depending upon zone.
Medium-distance rail links, or Media Distancia, are inter-provincial, but generally fall short of the long-distance or Larga Distancia connections which operate across several regions at once.
Both the latter are much slower than the high-speed AVE train – which is not covered by the free season ticket deal – although they are much cheaper, being around half the price.
Frequent-passenger tickets – passes for a set number of journeys, or unlimited trips over a specific time period – are the ones which will be at zero cost for the coming months.
From Monday, August 8, would-be travellers or regular commuters can apply online for their free passes via Renfe.com in a pre-registration process, and the passes will become available from August 24, coming into effect eight days later.
For the Cercanías and Rodalies networks, those applying need to pay a deposit of €10, which will be refunded after December 31 if they make a minimum of four journeys a month on these rail links within the specific nucleus they register for.
This means that the four monthly journeys have to be on the network for the same city to qualify – they could not, for example, take two trips a month on the Cercanías in Valencia and two on the Cercanías in Bilbao and still recover their deposit.
On the other hand, if they pay two deposits of €10, they could then recover both if they made four trips a month on the Valencia network and four on the Bilbao network.
Those who want to get a free pass for the Media Distancia or 'medium-distance' line need to make a €20 deposit, which they will get back after December 31 as long as they make more than 16 journeys from September to December inclusive on the same route.
In other words, they do not have to stick to a given frequency – they could, feasibly, make 10 journeys in September, none in October or November, then seven in December, and still qualify.
But the trips would have to be on the line between two specific station terminals – not necessarily from end to end, or from the same departure point to the same origin, or in the same direction, but would need to be along the same route.
The rail tickets are mainly a bid to help with the current living-cost crisis, although they are also aimed at promoting public transport use where this is available, as a way of reducing emissions within the wider battle against climate change.
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