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Spain’s free train tickets to continue throughout 2023

The Spanish government has announced that its free multi-journey train ticket scheme, which was created in a bid to help commuters fight inflation, will be extended for another year until at least December 2023.

Published: 4 October 2022 16:06 CEST

Spain's free train tickets to continue throughout 2023

Be careful not to go over your 90-day limit in Austria. (Photo: JAVIER SORIANO / AFP)

Spain’s Budget Minister María Jesús Montero made the announcement on Tuesday October 4th during the presentation of Spain’s General State Budgets for 2023.

The free train travel offer came into force on September 1st and was originally due to end on December 31st 2022, but Montero has now confirmed it will be extended until at least December 2023 when the measure’s economic and environmental impact will be evaluated.

The offer is available on trains operated by the state-owned train network Renfe, including Cercanías, Rodalies (in Catalonia), and Media Distancia (local and medium-distance journeys).

Crucially, it’s only offered on special multi-journey tickets, not on single journeys or high-speed AVE trains.

GUIDE: How to get free train tickets in Spain

In order to obtain the free travel offer, passengers must pay a €10 deposit on Cercanías or Rodalies and a €20 deposit on Media Distancia trains. The deposit will be returned at the end of the year if at least 16 trips have been made during the initial four months.

Now that the offer has been extended, however, it is unclear exactly how many trips travellers will have to make to get their deposits back going forward into 2023.

READ ALSO: Spain changes conditions for free train travel

Since the start of the free ticket plan, trips on Media Distancia trains grew by 40 percent since September 2022 and on Cercanías trains by 24 percent.

So far, 1.5 million free multi-journey tickets have already been requested and the goal is to reach 2 million during the rest of the year.

In order to finance the original measure, the government confirmed that €221 million would be allocated to regional governments and transport authorities across the country. More may now be needed in order to extend it.

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The new compensation rules for train delays and cancellations with Spain's Renfe

This changes will apply to Ave, Avlo, Alvia, Euromed and Intercity trains on journeys from July 1st.

This decision comes after a meeting of the company’s Board of Directors who wanted to introduce a similar commitment to punctuality as other competing companies such as Ouigo and Iryo.

But this is not necessarily good news, because now customers will only receive compensation when the delay times are greater and the amounts will be less.

For example, up until now if an AVE train was delayed 30 minutes you would receive a 100 percent refund, now it’s only if the delay exceeds 90 minutes, a whole hour and a half delay.

What are the new refund amounts and how long do the delays have to be?

Here’s a full breakdown of the new amounts:

Until now, 50 percent was refunded for delays of more than 15 minutes and 100 percent if they were more than 30 minutes.

Now the refunds will be 50 percent for delays of more than 60 minutes and 100 percent for those that exceed 90 minutes.

This means for example that if your train is now delayed up to 45 minutes, you won’t receive any compensation from Renfe at all.

How will the new refund system work?

You will still be able to get your refund in cash or on your card, as always, but there are now other options too including greater refund amounts, depending on what you choose. These are:

A refund of 200 percent of the amount depending on the delay time via a new points system managed through the Más Renfe card ‘Renfecitos’.
Compensation as a voucher to buy another ticket. In this case, the refund will be 150 percent of the amount for both delays of 60 minutes and those greater than 90 minutes.

If you choose the refund of the amount on your bank card, you can request it at renfe.com or at the station ticket offices and travel agencies.

If you choose the refund voucher, you can only get it online. In this case you have a maximum of three months from the date of travel to request compensation and a maximum of six months from when you have obtained the discount code to purchase the new ticket.

If you choose to be refunded with Renfe Points, you must also do this online. This option is only available for tickets purchased with a credit/debit card or cash. The points will be credited directly to your account and you have a maximum of three months from the date of travel to request compensation and a maximum of three years to use the points.

To claim delays on Avlo trains, you can do this through the automatic compensation system at www.avlorenfe.com or www.renfe.com. Compensation is paid through the same payment method as you used to purchase your ticket. You will have a maximum period of three months from the date of the trip to request it.

For compensation for delays on integrated tickets, you can apply for compensation at points of sale and customer service at the stations.

In 2023 Renfe paid out €42 million to its customers in compensation for delays. An amount that could have risen to almost €70 million if all affected users had requested compensation.

With this change, Renfe seeks to reduce the amount.

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