Pedro Sánchez has made a strong start to his first debate on the State of the Nation as President of the Government. In his initial speech in the Congress of Deputies, the leader of the Executive announced, among other measures, that Renfe’s multi-trip tickets will be free from September to the end of the year.
“Today I announce that the Government will discount 100% of the tickets for various journeys of Cercanías, Rodalies and medium distance, which will be free from September 1 to December 31” 2022, he stated from the lectern.
This measure, in the absence of its application, comes after the Spanish Executive already approved a 50 percent bonus in the last decree of anti-crisis measures.
“I am going to work my ass off to defend the country’s working middle class,” said the president during his opening speech at the twenty-sixth edition of the Debate on the State of the Nation.
“I am fully aware of the daily difficulties of most people. I know that the salary is getting less and less, that it is difficult to make ends meet, that the shopping basket is becoming more and more expensive. I take responsibility”, Pedro Sánchez has taken over.
The vice-president of the Generalitat, Jordi Puigneró, has called Sánchez’s announcement “populist”. “What Rodalies-Renfe users expect is that it will work, not that it will be free,” he said on Twitter. Puigneró said that the government’s measure “places public transport on the brink of economic and service collapse.”
In fact, Puigneró himself has lamented in statements to the press that this measure has not been agreed with other administrations, such as the Catalan one, which offer integrated Renfe tickets with other transport such as the metro, railways and buses.
In this sense, the vice president of the Generalitat has defended that the Government will maintain the current rates and will not modify the 50% discount currently in force for integrated titles.
In this way, and in accordance with what was announced by Pedro Sánchez, on the one hand, and Jordi Puigneró, on the other, between September and December, the Cercanías, Rodalies and medium-distance tickets operated by Renfe will be free, but not the integrated tickets, They also include other transport such as the metro, the railways and the bus, and will continue with a 50% discount.
