Renfe begins this Wednesday to notify 75,000 users of 50% subsidized season tickets who have been detected using “irregular” ones, with reservations that are then not used, which can lead to the seizure of the deposit and the cancellation of the ticket. transportation.
The misuse of free tickets is limited, Renfe points out, to 3% of the more than 2.3 million passes purchased since the 50% discount on medium-distance trips and 100% came into force last September commuter trains approved by the Government to partially offset the rise in inflation. The measure has been extended to 2023.
The company has informed in a note that this campaign of notices begins through emails and SMS, in which it will inform those who make reservations that they do not occupy and do not cancel at least two hours in advance, that if If they repeat this behavior three times, the subscription will be withdrawn. Renfe will send two notices to the holder when it is detected that he has not finally traveled without canceling the reservation with the required advance notice and the third time he repeats it, he will withdraw the deposit of 20 euros deposited when the subscription was purchased.
Even so, a transitional period of 7 days is established in which the traveler will be informed of the breach without this implying the application of the measure. Furthermore, among the new conditions of use, the maximum number of journeys allowed per subscription is limited to four daily round-trip trips and it will not be possible to make two trips in the same direction until triple the scheduled travel time has elapsed.
The rebates have meant that the volume of rail transport in October is already above pre-covid levels in medium distance (with one million users more than in October 2019) and is close to commuter, according to the figures published this Wednesday. the National Statistics Institute (INE). Specifically, in the suburbs, the 48.45 million trips in October are only slightly below February 2020 (just before the outbreak of the pandemic), although almost 6 million passengers are “missing” in the same month of 2019.
In long distance, which is not included in the bonus package, the figures are still below then, although they are close: 2.6 million now compared to 3 million three years ago.
