The Ministry of Transport, Mobility and Urban Agenda has modifiedor the conditions of use of free subscriptions medium distance to avoid the incorrect use of these tickets, especially the behavior of certain users who reserve a seat on trains with the season ticket and then do not travel, as reported on Monday by the Department headed by Raquel Sánchez.
The Official State Gazette (BOE) publishes this Monday the new conditions of these subscriptionswhich will come into operation, for the most part, next Wednesday, December 7.
Thus, after detecting irregularities, the Ministry of Transport has modified the operations for the sale and use of free multi-trip tickets from Media Distanciarestricting the formalization of trips and the acquisition of season tickets and sanctioning repeated irregular uses, among other actions.
Specifically, Renfe will seize the deposit of 20 euros and it will cancel the free subscription to users who, at least three times, have not canceled their seat reservation at least two hours in advance if they are not going to travel on the train in the end. Although the pass will only be withdrawn from the line in which irregular use has been detected, the railway operator will not issue a new pass associated with that holder for any medium-distance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.
sanctions
Current regulations establish that, in the case of conventional Medium Distance rail services, users must purchase a different pass for each origin/destination journeywhich will be valid for unlimited trips between the origin and destination requested by the client, in both directions.
Before arriving to withdraw the payment and the deposit, Renfe will send two notices to the holder when it detects that they have not finally traveled without canceling the reservation with the required advance notice. The third time that misuse is incurred, we will proceed to penalize. Even so, a transitional period of seven days is established in which the traveler will be informed of the breach without this implying the application of the measure.
In parallel, the new conditions will limit the maximum number of journeys that can be formalized per season ticket to four daily roundtrips and it will be impossible to formalize two trips in the same direction until triple the scheduled travel time has elapsed.
The Government thus wants to prevent it from distorting the effectiveness of a measure that was carried out with aim to stimulate the demand for public transport and contribute to reducing CO2 emissions.
Quota of places
On the other hand, in certain trains, with reservation of place and high demand, Renfe may establish a quota of standing seats, that is, without a reserved seat, which will not exceed 10% of the seats offered with reserved seats, informing travelers of said travel condition. 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.
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This measure will enter into force on January 1, 2023, coinciding with the activation of the extension of discounts for public rail transport.
The Ministry points out that the free passes for rail transport have been very well received by the population, which has already acquired more than 2.2 million tickets, of which 1.6 million They are for commuter travel and Rodalies and 627,000 titles are for conventional Media Distancia.