Spain offers free rail journeys from September until the end of the year
If you have plans to travel around Spain on four wheels this fall, you might want to reconsider renting that car.
A cost-of-living crisis brought about by skyrocketing energy prices and inflation has led the Spanish government to promise 100% discounts on state-owned train services across commuter and medium-distance routes.
That's right: From September until the end of the year, rail users can travel on Renfe-operated services and pay nothing. It will be free to hop aboard a carriage and explore what a city and its surrounding countryside have to offer.
Naturally, the offer is geared toward helping Spanish nationals with season tickets since commuters, in particular, are feeling the crunch. However, travelers from other countries can take advantage of the discount if they purchase multi-journey tickets.
Multi-journey tickets include a minimum of 10 return trips. So, for example, you could save money while you, ah, Basque, in the glow of San Sebastian and Bilbao, exploring great cities at your leisure. Or, perhaps you'll want to zip between the coast of Barcelona and the Catalan countryside when looking to maximize a short city break.
There are plenty of ways this deal could inspire your next adventure.
"This measure encourages to the maximum the use of this type of collective public transport to guarantee the needed daily commute with a safe, reliable, comfortable, economic and sustainable means of transportation, amid the extraordinary circumstances of the steady increase of energy and fuel prices," the Spanish Ministry of Transport said in a statement regarding the price drop.
Governments of many countries around the world continue to sit on the fence about how to tackle rising energy bills, but Spanish officials have been wonderfully proactive. Just last month, the government announced a 30% discount on all public transportation, allowing people to ride trams, buses and metros for far lower prices than they'd normally pay. This was another boost for tourism, too.
Related: Spain cracks down: New rules for rowdy vacationers
Climate change is (quite literally) a hot topic across the continent, and other European governments are using subsidized public transportation to not only save money for working people but also help save the world.
Both Germany as well as Austria have recently launched transportation deals to dissuade travelers from using their cars. The former's deal is part of a statewide energy relief package, and the latter's is in the form of a heavily discounted "climate ticket" on various modes of public transportation. Hopefully, other countries will follow suit.
"I'd like the people of Spain to know that I'm fully aware of the daily difficulties that most people have," the Spanish prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, said last week. "I know salaries cover less and less and that it's difficult to get to the end of the month."
For people struggling with paying rising costs for food and energy, it might still be too expensive to take a vacation, but discounts like these will go a long way to help those who can swing it.
Temperatures have been dangerously high across the Mediterranean this summer, and wildfires are still raging (some captured by passengers on Spanish trains, incidentally). Come autumn, the weather in Spain should be cooler, and the majority of vacationers will have packed up and returned home.
So, if you plan to be in Spain, grab yourself a rail discount and you'll be on track for a spectacular — and now, more affordable — vacation.
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