Spain’s Prime Minister, Pedro Sanchez, recently announced that all local and fairly distant journeys that are to be made by trains are going free from the 1st of September. The free of cost travelling will be only available through channels prescribed by Sanchez. That are, Cercanías, Rodalies and Media Distance. The free of cost travelling feature will only be valid till the end of this year, for now.
This feature might include tickets for a single journey or even the longer connected ones. But tickets that will include more than one journey might include a certain limit allotted.
Are They Saving Money Or The Environment?
While Spain had already cut down the fee of public transportation to 50% earlier, they now seem rather keen on letting it all go. Only valid on government owned transportation facilities though. But The Renfe Scheme has completely taken down all costs intact.
“This measure encourages to the maximum the use of this type of collective public transport to guarantee the needed daily commute with a safe, reliable, comfortable, economic and sustainable means of transportation, amid the extraordinary circumstances of the steady increase of energy and fuel prices,” said the Spanish Ministry of transport in a statement released.
Although Spain mightn’t be the only country in Europe who are looking towards minimising transportation costs. Germany has also involved themselves in creating an economical transportation hub for its citizens. A set price has been set by the German government that allows people to travel within the country. The price is set at €9. Although they’ve allowed this to run for the latter half of August only.
Even in 2021 Austria developed a “Klimaticket”. The climate ticket was launched with the hope of less cars running in the country. That all citizens adopt the method of public transportation. It came in a yearly package of €1095 per year.