After Germany, it is Spain’s turn to launch forceful action in terms of transport policy. The President of the Spanish Government, Pedro Sánchez, announced this Saturday at a meeting in Murcia that the next Council of Ministers will approve on Tuesday a 50% reduction in the European Interrail pass for young people between 18 and 30 years of age. As a reminder, the Interrail ticket allows you to take an unlimited number of trains in 33 European countries.
As revealed by the Spanish press agency EFE, this measure will be accompanied by a national system that provides for a 90% reduction in the price of state-owned trains and buses and 50% in high-speed trains on the AVE network. . Free rail passes for regional and commuter trains had already been launched in September. According to Renfe, the Spanish rail operator, 2.1 million subscriptions were issued in the first quarter. The president of the Spanish Government wants to put young people at the center of his government’s priorities and promote an “earlier emancipation” while his unemployment rate is historically low.
An economic and ecological measure on the other side of the Rhine
This announcement comes a few days after the introduction of the “Deustchlandticket” across the Rhine. From Monday, Germans can take advantage of this offer that gives them unlimited access to buses, subways, suburban and regional trains for the monthly sum of 49 euros . However, high-speed trains are excluded. With this initiative, Germany wants both to support the population against inflation and to promote the use of less polluting transport.
The German Association of Public Transport Managers (VDV) expects at least 16 million future subscribers in a country of 84 million inhabitants. Some 750,000 tickets have already been sold, not counting the users who have converted their usual subscription into a “Deutschlandticket”. A financing agreement has been reached between the regions and the State, which will each pay 1,500 million euros a year, to prevent the deficit of Deutsche Bahn, the national rail operator, estimated at 30,000 million euros from widening further.
Source: BFM TV
