The transport pass will allow people unlimited travel anywhere in the country by bus or train for a flat monthly fee
MADRID – Spain has launched a national public transport pass that will allow people unlimited travel anywhere in the country by bus or train for a flat monthly fee of €60 (£52.70).
It is another boost for a system that already allows locals – and British tourists – to journey around a vast country for affordable prices.
For the same price as a meal for two, passengers will be able to spend four weeks touring Spain’s most beautiful holiday destinations. Those under 26 will pay just €30 (£26) a month.
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The pass does not include tickets for high-speed Ave (Alta Velocidad Española) trains, operated by the state service, Renfe. But it does include “medium distance” trains. which will carry you hundreds of miles.
For example, it would include a train from Barcelona 63 miles (101km) north to Girona on the French border, or a 45-mile trip from Madrid to Toledo, the capital of Spain until the 16th-century and a big draw for tourists.
In comparison, the cost of monthly rail tickets in the UK ranges between £200 and £600 for specific medium distance routes, depending on the timing, distance and number of the journeys.
The average cost of a monthly rail ticket from Reading to London is £513, while the same journey every month from the capital to Cambridge is £568. The cost of an average monthly rail ticket between Brighton and London is £478.
Buses are already cheap. A ticket from Malaga to La Linea de la Concepcion, the town over the border from Gibraltar 84 miles away, costs £15 one way. Now it will cost even less.
In 2023, Germany launched a similar €49 (£43) monthly pass covering rail, trams, metro and buses.
Spain’s prime minister Pedro Sanchez unveiled the initiative on Monday, saying it would come into effect in the second half of January and was intended “to change the way Spaniards understand and use public transport for ever”.
Spain’s left-wing government wants to get people out of their cars and into buses and trains to cut emissions and pollution. This measure will no doubt be persuasive for commuters who are the real targets of Sanchez’s early Christmas gift.
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Imagine if Britain did something similar. The key difference is that the Spanish government still largely retains control over the rail service, despite competition from the French Ouigo and Italian Iryo.
In the UK, the situation is more complex. But whenever I come back – particularly at Christmas – I can’t help shaking my head in despair at the expensive contrast to Spain. Engineering works and strikes do nothing to help.
If Sir Keir Starmer wanted to get serious about cutting emissions and pollution, the Iberian idea might be worth thinking about.
