MRIDA, 7 (PRESS EUROPE)
Renfe has issued 17,500 free season tickets to travel on Media Distancia trains in Extremadura during the first two months of the government’s measure to allow recurring users to travel for free until 31 December.
In this period, 252,900 trips were recorded on Extremadura Media Distancia trains, which means almost tripling the number of trips, in particular the 180% increase, recorded during the months of September and October 2021, Renfe reported in Press release.
In the national group, Renfe has reached the two million free Cercanas, Rodalies and Media Distancia passes issued since last August 24, which has made it possible to increase the demand for public transport, until Cercanas is at 95% of pre-pandemic levels and the Media Distancia only 5% to recover all that has been lost by the Covid-19.
In the last year, Cercanas trips grew by 34.6%: 31% in Madrid, 32.7% in Barcelona and 38% in Valencia. In centers such as Málaga, Bilbao or Cádiz, the increase compared to last year is around 55%, and in Asturias or Santander it exceeds 60%, according to company data.
As for Media Distancia, they have recorded five million trips up to November 1, which means almost two million more trips, about 58% more, and 861,000 more than in 2019, or a 20.5% more.
Of the total free multi-journey tickets issued, more than 1.4 million (71%) correspond to season tickets for travel in the various centers of Cercanas, Rodalies and Cercanas Wide Metric, while the remaining almost 600,000 season tickets (29%) are for the Medium Distance.
In addition to free season tickets for recurring customers, Renfe has sold nearly 55,000 tickets at 50% discount from Avant for use on medium-distance high-speed services through January 31, 2023.
The corridor with the most tickets of this type is Madrid-Segovia-Valladolid, with 13,700 (25.6% of the total), followed by Madrid-Ciudad Real-Puertollano (8,900, 16.6%) and Madrid-Toledo (8,100, 15 ,2%) .
According to estimates, this measure, taken by the Government to alleviate the effects of the crisis caused by the Russian invasion of Ukraine and promote the use of public transport, reducing energy dependence and emissions, will benefit over 75 million displaced residents.
This aid, approved by the government on August 1st and launched on September 1st, will save 118 million liters of petrol and avoid the emission of 360,576 tonnes of carbon dioxide (CO2) into the atmosphere, if transport had been carried out in car.
