In the Canary Islands it will continue to be free and the Balearic Islands are still waiting to extend their free service.
The Government has once again extended the free Cercanías and Media Distancia trains for regular users for the entire year 2024, as well as the 50% discounts on regional transportation.
The President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, explained in the press conference following the Council of Ministers that these measures will continue to be applied as they have been until now.
This means that the autonomous communities will be obliged to contribute 20% of the 50% discount so that the State can transfer the funds to subsidize the 30% discount, all of which is intended for multi-trip passes and tickets.
Along with the free Medium Distance and Cercanías trains, there will also continue to be free tickets for bus travelers whose responsibility falls on the State, as well as for regular travelers.
The approval of these two measures was foreseeable, since the Government already included an allocation of 1,440 million euros in its 2024 budget plan for the subsidy of public transport, including free trains and buses and aid to the autonomous communities. for discounts on transportation from your competition.
Specifically, free tickets on trains will cost around 600 million euros, direct aid to communities and town councils will concentrate 760 million euros, and subsidies for long-distance state buses will account for another 80 million euros.
In Cantabria and Asturias, free Cercanías and Media Distancia services were already guaranteed, even though it had not been approved in the rest of Spain, since the Government committed to those two regions to apply this measure as compensation for the delay in delivery. of trains for its railway network, which will be extended each year until they are delivered, foreseeably in 2026.
For its part, in the Canary Islands transport will be completely free, while the situation in the Balearic Islands is still up in the air, in the absence of confirmation from the Executive to extend the aid to finance the 100% discounts in this archipelago, which already They have been applied in 2023. For now, the Balearic Government has approved an extension only for the month of January, while they wait for the response from Madrid.
Transportation discounts began to be applied in September 2022, in response to the increase in prices after the outbreak of the war in Ukraine. It began with free Cercanías and Media Distancia trains and in January 2023, 30% discounts on regional transport were approved without conditions. In the second semester, the Government made this 30% discount subject to the communities financing an additional 20%.
