The Government of the Community of Madrid, chaired by Isabel Díaz Ayuso, has not clarified this Wednesday whether it will maintain in 2025 the current discounts that apply to the transport pass, and which expire on December 31. Since September 2022, and with the aim of alleviating the effects of inflation and the war in Ukraine, the central government began to subsidize 30% of subscriptions, with the condition that regional governments do the same with another 20%. . As a consequence, between September 2022 and February 2023, Madrid residents paid 50% less for their transport passes than they had been paying. Since then, and until December 2024, the discount reaches 60% (less in the ten trip voucher), which has meant a saving of 30 million per month for users (360 million a year). But everything can change now: in spring, two regional councilors floated the possibility of raising the price of the pass, and now it has been the Minister of Transport, Óscar Puente, who has left the continuity of the system up in the air.
“What we don’t know is whether or not the central government is going to maintain those additional resources that it had put in place in the last two years,” the spokesman for the regional government, Miguel Ángel García Martín, said on the matter this Wednesday, when asked about the Puente’s words. “When we know, we will be able to speak out about it,” he added, during the weekly press conference after the government council. “When we know him, and we hope that he communicates it as soon as possible, and does not wait until the last minute, we will be able to know if there will be an additional effort on the part of Pedro Sánchez’s government,” he continued. And he added: “It should be added to the efforts that Communities like Madrid have been making for a long time.”
As a result of the aid, the 30-day youth pass has been costing 8 euros; the normal A, 21.8; the B1, 25.4 euros; B2, 28.8 euros, and the unified zone B3-C1/C2, 32.8.
In contrast, if the aid program ends on December 31, and the central and regional governments decide not to renew the bonus, the transport passes will return at least to their original price: the youth pass will be 20 euros, zone A 54 ,6; the B1, 63.7; the B2 at 70; and zones B3, C1 and C2 to 82.
The regional Executive already began to open the door to the possibility of raising season ticket prices at the beginning of the year.
This was stated by the Minister of Transport, Housing and Infrastructure, Jorge Rodrigo, at the beginning of March, when he said that the discount “perhaps is excessive”; and this was confirmed shortly after, already black on white, by the head of Economy, Finance, and Employment, Rocío Albert.
“Is the Community considering raising public transport fares?” he was asked during an informative breakfast organized by Europe Press. “It is being studied,” responded the advisor to the Government of Isabel Díaz Ayuso. “What you cannot do is make things impossible,” he continued. “If we want to maintain the level of investment in our metro, one of the best in Europe, and in the world, if we want to continue extending kilometers, we will have to help those who really need it, but perhaps part of the subsidy, which was part of the pandemic, must be reversed and used for those investments.”
New Budgets
Since then, the regional Executive, now immersed in the preparation of the 2025 Budgets, which must be presented before the end of the month and approved at the end of the year, has been studying “progressive formulas.” It is clear, because the government spokesperson said this Wednesday, that aid such as the youth pass, the discount for large families, or free transportation for those over 65 will be maintained. What has not yet been clarified is whether an income criterion could be introduced so that citizens with less income can continue enjoying the bonus.
In parallel, the Minister of Transport and Sustainable Mobility, Óscar Puente, from the PSOE, has shown even more clearly his intention to eliminate this aid. “My position is that this policy has to change,” he summarized on Tuesday, although he did not close it by pointing out that the bonuses, including free Cercanías, “will depend on the budget negotiations and the Government of Spain.”
Puente also explained that his collaborators are already working on a new model starting January 1 that will replace the one implemented in September 2022 to combat the effects of inflation and the war in Ukraine.
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