MADRID – Since Monday 8 August it is possible for all train passengers who need to register on THIS ONE website to use the train in Spain for free or with a discount. The government previously announced that this will be possible between September 1 and December 31, 2022. The train travel discounts apply to everyone, so for the inhabitants of Spain and for tourists who buy multi-journey tickets for certain trains.
In mid-July, new plans were announced to make life a little cheaper for many residents of Spain. In this case, it concerns traveling by train, which will become free for many people for four months. But this 100% or 50% discount does not apply to everyone and therefore not everywhere, so a short explanation.
tourists
The government has announced that no distinction is made between train passengers, so the 100% or 50% discounts apply to residents of Spain and also to tourists who travel by train in Spain. This only concerns the cercanías and rodalies trains (100% discount) and media distancia or Avant trains (50%) discount and only with the purchase of a multi-trip ticket.
Discounts
The 100% discount applies to the so-called ‘abonos de cercanías, rodalies’, ie multi-journey tickets or subscriptions for short-distance trains. This discount therefore does not apply to long-distance journeys and high-speed trains or AVE/AVLO, nor to individual or individual train tickets such as a single or return ticket to Madrid, Barcelona or Valencia.
Of discount applies to the cercanías, rodalies and media distancia (Avant) trains that are provided by the Spanish railway company Renfe (see the bottom of the article for an explanation of the trains). In fact, there has been a 50% discount since June, but from September 1 to December 31, 2022, this will be 100% for holders of subscriptions or more ride cards (abonos).
The 50% discount applies to the media distancia or Avant trains (Media Distancia Alta Velocidad) for journeys of less than 300 kilometers. These are therefore not the AVE/AVLO high-speed trains for which no discount applies.
This 100% or 50% discount therefore does not apply to the AVE/AVLO high-speed trains and long-distance trains, but also not to the regional train connections that fall under the responsibility of the autonomous regions. There is a 30% discount that can be extended by the regional authorities, with the government proposing to increase this to 60%. The discounts therefore do not apply to the metro, tram or buses or to school transport and certainly not to tourist transport.
To take advantage of the 100% and 50% discounts on the cercanías, rodalies and media distancia (Avant) trains, you must go to THIS ONE website (in Spanish) or use the Renfe smartphone app (in Spanish). You must therefore purchase a multi-trip ticket (abono) and pay a deposit (depósito/fianza) of 10 euros for the cercanías and rodalies trains and 20 euros for the media distancia (Avant) trains. You will get this ‘fianza’ back from Renfe later if you have made 16 train journeys.
Type of trains
There are many types of trains in Spain of the Spanish railway company Red Nacional de los Ferrocarriles Españoles (Renfe) including the AVE (high-speed trains), AVLO (budget high-speed trains), larga distancia (long-distance trains), media distancia (medium-distance trains), cercanías (regional or short-distance trains) and the Catalan Rodalies (Catalan regional or short-distance trains).
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