The Spanish government announced this Wednesday it will maintain the public transport discount throughout 2024. The last Spanish Council of Ministers passed a new decree-law which will extend the subsidy on the metro, bus, train and tramway for another year, a measure which is part of the social aid package to combat inflation, which was already extended for 2023 after being implemented at the end of 2022. Pedro Sánchez's government must pass the decree before the end of the year so that prices are maintained as from January 1st.
As regards Barcelona and its entire metropolitan area, the T-Usual (personal ticket, grants unlimited trips for a month) and T-Jove (personal ticket available to those under-30, allows unlimited travel in all 6 travel zones for 3 months) will continue to enjoy the same state subsidies. The spanish government will continue to subsidise 30% of the ticket price, while the Metropolitan Transport Authority (TMB) will maintain the 20% subsidy for these two tickets. However, last week the TMB announced its intention to update public transport fares with a 6.75% increase in price.
What would the final prices be?
All in all, the fares for zone 1 —which includes Barcelona and other nearby towns— would be as follows, pending official confirmation by the TMB:
Single ticket: 2.56 euros
T-Casual: 12.12 euros (personal ticket, valid for 10 trips)
T-Usual: 21.35 euros (personal ticket, grants unlimited trips for a month)
T-Youth: 42.70 euros (personal ticket available to those under-30, allows unlimited travel in all 6 travel zones for 3 months)
T-Day: 11.21 euros (personal, unlimited trips for 1 day)
T-Family: 10.68 euros (valid for 30 days, allows for 8 trips)
T-Group: 84.81 euros (valid for 30 days, allows for 70 trips)
Fares have been frozen since 2020
The new fares agreed to by the TMB will not come into force "until the Spanish Ministry of Transport and Sustainable Mobility officially passes the contribution". Regarding the general fare increase, "which has not occurred since 2020", the TMB indicated on December 19th that factors have been taken into account to continue guaranteeing the system's sustainability, after 3 years of frozen prices and improvements to the benefits of the social fare options. In addition, it highlighted the "generalised high increase of prices in recent years, which has particularly affected the energy cost" and that in 2024 the accumulated increase in the CPI is estimated to reach 19%.
"The impact generated by COVID-19, which caused at least two years of strong financial imbalance for operators, was also taken into account" it added, and pointed out that during this time there has also been an improvement in the supply, renewal and expansion of rolling stock and technological renovation of the public transport system. In addition, TMB pointed out that the cost of the service covered by administrations with their public contributions "is still very high and favourable to the user": from 58.7% in 2019 to 65.5% in 2023.
Transport tickets 2023
The change in fares for 2024 confirms the expiry of the integrated tickets purchased in 2023, which will be valid until February 29th 2024. The T-Verda (free transport title, valid for three years for decommissioning and scrapping a vehicle without an environmental label) and T-16 (free ticket which grants free transport for those under-16) will keep the expiry date of each ticket, and the current 2022 season tickets (which extended their validity) will expire on December 31st. In addition, it will be possible to exchange unused tickets for tickets of the same type, paying the corresponding difference in price if this occurs. These exchanges can be made at various points until March 31st, 2024.
Spanish government measures against the economic crisis
In a press conference, Spanish prime minister Pedro Sánchez explained that these anti-crisis measures for public transport will be in force with the same procedures, which means that the autonomous regions must provide 20% of the 50% discount for the Spanish state to transfer the funds to subsidise the 30% reduction, all of which will be used for season tickets and multi-journey tickets. Along with free tickets on the Media Distancia and Rodalies commuter service, free tickets will still be available for bus travellers whose responsibility falls to the State, as well as regular travellers.
The approval of these two measures was foreseeable, given that the Spanish government already included an allocation of 1,440 million euros in its 2024 budget plan for subsidising public transport, including free tickets on trains and buses and aid to the autonomous communities for discounts on transport within their jurisdiction. Specifically, free tickets on trains will cost around 600 million euros, direct aid to autonomous regions and towns will cost 760 million euros, and subsidies for long-distance state buses will cost a further 80 million euros.