One of the most popular measures that the Government has undertaken to confront the economic crisis derived from the rise in prices and the war in Ukraine has been making a large part of the country’s public transport network free of charge. A bonus that goes from commuter to Alsa buses, which the President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, has announced that he will extend, as of January 1, 2023, to regular users of the new Media Distancia Avant rail services between Murcia and Alicante.
This has been advanced at the inauguration ceremony of the high-speed line between Madrid and Murcia, which was also attended by King Felipe V, the Minister of Transport, Mobility and Urban Agenda (Mitma), Raquel Sánchez, and the presidents from the Region of Murcia and the Autonomous Community, Fernando López Miras and Ximo Puig, respectively.
With the opening of the line between Elche and Murcia, the duration of the trip between the capital of the Region and Alicante will be shortened by about 40 minutes. Sánchez has defined as “a success” the gratuity of the Cercanías and Media Distancia vouchers promoted by his Government, which have been used by a total of 2.5 million people, 35,000 of them in the Region of Murcia.
“The free subscription represents a paradigm shift in mobility and, at the same time, protects the social majority in a context of uncertainty”, highlighted the President of the Government. Likewise, he recalled that it is a measure adopted to “initially cushion the impact of inflation caused by Putin’s war in Ukraine” which has also served, on the other hand, to reduce emissions into the atmosphere by one million tons of CO2.
