The measure will apply from September and will also benefit travelers on Medium Distance routes
Around 1.3 million trips will be free on the Cercanías services in the Region of Murcia with the 100% discount on subscriptions announced on Tuesday by the President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, according to Renfe sources. These trips correspond to a significant number of subscribers and users with multi-trip tickets.
This bonus will be valid between the months of September and December for users with any subscription modality for the Murcia-Alicante and Murcia-Lorca-Águilas commuter lines. Due to the elimination of the old railway line to build the Mediterranean Corridor, the service of this second line is provided with buses, which is considered for all purposes as a train ticket.
Renfe has not yet quantified the free trips that the Medium Distance trains will provide between Cartagena and Murcia, with six daily routes, and between the Region and Valencia, with two frequencies in each direction. In this way, the total number of free trips will exceed 1.3 million during these months.
The railway area of Murcia, Cartagena, Lorca and Alicante is among those with the highest passenger traffic in Spain
At present, the Region’s Cercanías and Media Distancia services move between 7,000 and 8,000 passengers a day, representing almost three million users a year. The Murcia-Cartagena-Lorca-Alicante Cercanías and Media Distancia area is one of the most important in the national network in terms of passenger movements. The Murcia-Alicante Cercanías service has an average of 19 daily frequencies in each direction, three of them with Civis trains; while the Murcia-Lorca-Águilas line has 16 frequencies.
different subscriptions
Renfe prepares the implementation of the new measures of the Government of the nation from September. In principle, the 100% discount on the ticket will benefit all those who have a season ticket for the aforementioned services, which can be requested at the train stations. There are several types of subscriptions and multi-trip tickets: for a week, a month or by number of trips. With this bonus, an increase in the use of the railway is expected, although it is early to know if the frequencies in the Region’s Cercanías will increase.
Until now, the bonus for all travel passes for Renfe trains that comply with mandatory public service in Cercanías and Media Distancia was 50%, as a result of the package of extraordinary measures against the crisis derived from the Russian invasion of Ukraine, but it has been generalized in order to encourage the use of public transport against the private use of the vehicle in the face of high fuel prices.
The Semaf machinists union warned that there have been crowds in some services when they have become free, and that these measures must be dimensioned to demand, especially in large cities.
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