The Community of Madrid increases the sale of public transport tickets by more than 20% due to price cuts

The Community of Madrid has increased the sale of public transport tickets by 20.7% in January compared to the same period in 2022. Fare reductions have led to over 1.7 million monthly season ticket and multi-trip card top-ups since the beginning of the year.

This was announced today by the Regional Minister for Transport and Infrastructure, David Pérez, during his visit to the Plaza de Castilla interchange, where he specified that since 1 January, the demand for public transport has risen to more than 98 million passengers and 5 million a day: 2.1 million on Metro, more than 864,000 on intercity buses, 1.4 million on EMT buses and just over 560,000 on Cercanías.

In turn, sales of personal cards grew by 82% compared to 2022 and Multi cards by 55.36%, with a total of 226,580 new tickets. Transport Season Tickets increased by 29.46% and users with the Normal ticket have exceeded 535,644 operations.

The Young Persons Season Ticket has also benefited especially from the additional discount, as can be seen in the 656,029 sales, which represents 21.84% more users.

The C2 season ticket has increased far above the rest as a result of the unification of fares from this zone to zone B3: more than 37,515 users have topped in the different zones of the equalisation, an increase of over 405.25%.

Finally, the increase of the Transport Season Ticket in zone A was 53.66% higher than sales in the same period the previous year; in zone B1, more than 91,000 operations and in zone B2, public transport users grew by 33%.

50% DISCOUNT ON THE PRICE OF THE MULTI-TRIP CARD

The Regional Minister for Transport and Infrastructure has announced that the Board of Directors of the Madrid Regional Transport Consortium (Consorcio Regional de Transportes de Madrid, CRTM) will meet tomorrow, Monday, to approve a 50% reduction in the price of multi-trip tickets compared to their original price.

The Multi card for public transport is valid for ten years. It can contain up to three types of non-personal tickets of the public transport service fare system, such as single and ten-ride tickets for Metro and Metro Ligero, ten-ride tickets for city and intercity buses and tourist tickets.

This allows the same card to be used by different people, to pay for the trip of companions sharing the same route and to hold tickets for trips other than the usual one.

Thus, with the new discount, users of the Metro in zone A, EMT, Metros Ligeros, will see the price reduced from €8.10 to €6.10; passengers who change trains on the EMT or have a combined ticket on the underground will pay €9.10 compared to the current €12.80.

FREE SEASON TICKET FOR THE OVER 65S

With the free travel season ticket for the over 65s, purchases increased by 75% during the first month of the year, exceeding 657,191 users who can travel on the entire Madrid public transport network, with figures close to those for the whole of 2022 (714,722).

In January, 19,243 new personal cards were issued to users with this age profile and more than 1.2 million trips were made on all public transport options in the region.

In order to use the free fare option, it is necessary to have completed the 30-day subscription charge, so these users will be gradually incorporated into the free fare option.

60% ON THE PRICE OF MONTHLY SEASON TICKETS

From next Wednesday 1 February 2023, the 60% reduction in the price of monthly public transport season tickets will come into force. The Madrid government has extended this discount to 60% instead of the 50% requested by the central government.

With these new fares, from next week, the 30-day Young Persons Season Ticket, which can be used by under 26s, will be reduced to €8; the Normal A will cost €21.80; B1, €25.4; B2 €28.8, and the unified zone B3-C1/C2 will cost €32.8.

In addition, there are discounts on all types of season ticket for large families in the general category, which have an additional reduction of 20%, and those in the special category, with 50%; in the case of people with a disability of more than 65%, it is 20%.

Meanwhile, Blue Card users will pay €4.30 per month. The blue card is a ticket designed for people registered as living in the Spanish Capital who meet certain age or disability criteria, and it has an income limit. Finally, the more than 64,300 children aged 4 to 6 who use the children's TTP will continue to travel for free on this public service.

A Transport Pass is a personal, non-transferable ticket, which allows an unlimited number of journeys to be made within its spatial and temporal scope of application. In order to be used, it must be loaded onto the Public Transport Card (TTP). There are eight fare zones –six of them within the Community of Madrid and two in Castilla-La Mancha– and each more outlying zone includes the inner ones (e.g., B3 can be used in areas A, B1 and B2), except for travel between zones.