Background information

Due to the inflation that has resulted from the war in Ukraine, the price of transportation tickets has increased. It is necessary to adopt positive public policy that makes it easier for young people to use collective public land transport, both rail and road, for their journeys. The aim is to facilitate leisure trips during the summer by using a safer, more reliable, comfortable, economical and sustainable means of transport than the private car.

The government's objective is to help the tourism and cultural sectors recover after the pandemic, boosting national destinations and collaborating with the development of rural Spain. In this way, the measure promotes historical and cultural heritage and knowledge of Spain among young people.

Content of measure

Royal Decree-Law 4/2023 regulates ticket discounts to make it easier for young people to travel on public transportation during the summer of 2023 throughout Spain and Europe. Additionally, the measure provides a 50% discount on high speed trains and interrail passes. The discount will be applied to the price of single or return tickets for the period between 15 June and 15 September 2023.

The potential beneficiaries are young people between 18 and 30 years old of Spanish nationality or of any country of the European Union with legal residence in Spain.

To finance this measure, a series of extraordinary credits for up to €170 million have been approved. Of this budget, €30 million will to finance the discounts on medium-distance rail services, €70 million will support high-speed and long-distance trains, €60 million will support state bus lines, and €10 million will finance the Interrail Pass discount.

Use of measure

In May 2023, it was estimated that the discounts could benefit 12.5 million trips made by young people in Spain and double the sale of interrail passes. Data published by the Spanish Government at the end of September 2023 show that, in the summer of 2023, two million young people between 18 and 30 years of age have registered on the website of the Ministry of Transport to benefit from these subsidies. Of the two million young people registered, more than 1.13 million have travelled with their discounted tickets. Within Spain, a total of four million journeys have been registered between 15 June and 15 September 2023, of which 60% have been made by rail and the rest by road transport. In addition, 16,134 interrail passes were used to move around Europe. The most popular destinations within Spain are Andalusia, Valencia, Catalonia and Madrid, since 80% of the trips have their origin and/or destination in these autonomous communities. Specifically, 27% of journeys were between Madrid and Catalonia, Madrid and the Valencia region and between Madrid and Andalusia.

Target groups

Workers	Businesses	Citizens
Does not apply to workers	Does not apply to businesses	Youth (18-25)

Actors and funding

Actors	Funding
National government	National funds

Social partners

Social partners' role in designing the measure and form of involvement:

	Trade unions	Employers' organisations
Role	No involvement as case not in social partner domain	No involvement as case not in social partner domain
Form	Not applicable	Not applicable

Social partners' role in the implementation, monitoring and assessment phase:

• No involvement
• Main level of involvement: N/A

Involvement

Social partners did not take part in the design and approval of these measures.

Views and reactions

No views/ positions have been published form social partners’ side.

Sectors and occupations

This case is not occupation-specific.

Sources

• 11 May 2023: Real Decreto-ley 4/2023 (www.boe.es)