After joining forces in last week’s plenary session to approve, against the majority partner of the Government, parliamentary control for the shipment of weapons to war zones and to facilitate claims against banks for abusive mortgage clauses, Sumar and the PP have joined forces again this Tuesday in Congress, in the Transportation Commission in which they have demanded that the Government “confirmation and communication as soon as possible” of what the public transport aid starting next year, when the current bonuses expire on December 31, which since 2023 have halved urban passes and made suburban services or medium-distance trains free.
The initiative, a non-binding non-law proposal from Sumar, has been approved because the PSOE has also supported it after introducing an amendment underlining that from 2025 the said system will be “transformed” towards a system aimed at those who need it most, in line with the strokes that the Minister of Transport has already given, Oscar Puentethat they will focus on frequent travelers, young people and vulnerable families. In any case, both this ‘brake’ by the socialists and the messages during the debate have shown that the Paths between the two Government partners diverge again in Congress and that, one of them, is once again closer to the PP.
The deputy of Sumar Júlia Boada has defended a PNL that in the first of its points urges the Government to “ensure continuity of bonuses of public transport during the year 2025 and a confirmation and public communication as soon as possible”.
The discounts and free public transport with which the Government has tried to cushion the effects of inflation due to the energy crisis since 2022 have cost in the order of 1.6 billion euros per year and for the Sumar representative they have had a “clearly undeniable success.”
Two months before they expire, the PP deputy Celso Delgado He has also acknowledged that aid to public transport “has contributed in part to the increase in the number of travelers” and has stated that his group “shares” with Sumar the request for Puente to report as soon as possible on what will happen in 2025.
“The year is ending,It’s been two months and nothing has yet been clarified about what is going to happen with public transport bonuses in 2025. This is generating enormous concern,” he said. Given that “not many citizens can afford to pay the amounts that were paid before due to high inflation,” Delgado added on behalf of the PP that “it seems reasonable to us ensure as soon as possible” how the aid will be next year “so that citizens can organize their lives.
The PSOE has also approved a PNL that has only had Vox’s vote against and three abstentions in the commission, including that of ERC, after Sumar agreed to include an amendment in which the socialists recall the commitment of the Government that, once 2024 is over, “would be transformed into a permanent transport policy”.
“They were exceptional measures to face a situation of social and economic vulnerability”, recalled the socialist deputy Patricia Otero, more in line with the Government’s plan so that, starting next year, bonuses that until now have been universal disappear and only those for frequent and young users and free ones for vulnerable households remain. “We maintain the reduction in the price of the transport pass for all citizens in 2024 and later transform this measure into a permanent transport policy,” said Otero.
Single subscription throughout Spain
On the other hand, the PNL also asks the Government to begin studying “as soon as possible” the implementation of “single subscription models or rate unification”with a single card for all of Spain, like the one that exists in Germany or Austria. At the moment, what the Puente department is working on is the technology to enable that any transportation card can be read by machines in any community, as a prior step to unifying rates and their management, something in which the three parties have made it clear that they must the autonomous communities and city councils participate.
Here also the PP and the PSOE have supported the idea, although the socialists have pointed out the complexity of fulfilling the third and last point of Sumar’s initiative, that the “investigation” by the Ministry on how to implement a single transport pass throughout Spain is list “before the end of the extension of bonuses”. “It is a complex process,” the socialist deputy said on her behalf.
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