Renfe modifies the conditions of the free medium distance pass to avoid misuse

• Budgets The Government will extend the free Renfe subscriptions in Cercanías and Media Distancia throughout 2023

The

(Mitma) has modified the conditions of the

conventional medium-distance passes to avoid the misuse of these tickets, for example, certain users who reserve a seat on trains with the pass and then do not travel .

After detecting an

of the tickets, which undermine the effectiveness of the measures aimed at encouraging demand for public transport and contributing to reducing CO2 emissions, the Ministry has approved a series of measures that, for the most part, will be put into in operation on December 7.

Thus, through the resolution published this Monday in the Official State Gazette (BOE), which modifies the sale and use of free Media Distancia multi-trip tickets,

, the acquisition of passes and the They will penalize repeated irregular uses, among other actions.

Specifically, Renfe will

and will cancel the free subscription to users who, at least three times, have not canceled the reservation of the seat with a minimum of two hours in advance if they are not finally going to travel on the train.

Although the pass will only be withdrawn from the line in which irregular use has been detected, the railway operator will not issue a new pass associated with that holder for any medium-distance origin-destination within a period of 30 days from the cancellation.

Before withdrawing the payment and the deposit, Renfe will send

when it detects that they have not finally traveled without canceling the reservation with the required advance notice and the third time misuse is incurred, they will proceed to sanction.

In parallel, the maximum number of journeys that can be formalized per season ticket

round-trip trips and it will be impossible to formalize two trips in the same direction until three times the scheduled travel time elapses.

In addition, to facilitate greater use of the trains, in certain trains, with reserved seats and high demand, Renfe may establish a quota of standing seats, that is, without reserved seats, which will not exceed 10% of the seats offered. with seat reservation, informing passengers of said travel condition, and seat selection will not be available on these high-demand trains.

Likewise, a specific subscription will be launched for minors without DNI and only one title can be obtained by DNI, NIE or passport for each origin-destination, thus avoiding improper use of these titles.

This specific measure will come into force on January 1, 2023, coinciding with the activation of the extension of the discounts for public rail transport, an initiative that has been very well received by the population that has already acquired more than 2.2 million free subscriptions, of which 1.6 million are for travel on Cercanías and Rodalies and 627,000 tickets are for conventional Media Distancia.

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