Transport Minister Oscar Puente believes that train travel should continue to develop in Spain and adapt to some of the modalities that occur in the rest of Europe. This is the case when tickets are purchased without seats, thus opening the door to travel on foot. Always in short, the person in charge of the national railway explained in an interview in July in Hora Ventepico, of Cadena Ser.
“This is common in Europe, and one thing that does not happen here is the sale of trains without a seat,” said the person in charge of transport policy in the government. “The president of Renfe is very supportive of starting work on a line with this option, on transfers that are not very long.”
According to Puente, the formula can increase the occupancy potential of trains and, at the same time, prevent spaces from being purchased and not used, leaving gaps in the trays. This thinking goes back to what happened two years ago, when special discounts were activated due to the slowdown in inflation after the Ukrainian war, and advantages were purchased over medium distances that subsequently filled up unoccupied yards. Renfe has begun accounting for fraudulent use of installments and 20% of invoices, which is why some measures have been taken to try to mitigate the situation.
At the same time, the Minister of Transport reopens another debate about the need for safety controls for access to high-speed trains: “It is delicate, but it will be a big cost for ADEV.” The controls began 20 years ago, and are the roots of the terrorist attacks in Atocha and S-11 in New York. However, at the moment this does not seem necessary. “It does not depend on my ministry, it depends on the Interior. I spend a lot of time with them, because for Adev, in addition, the cost is important, about 15 million euros per year,” the minister estimated.
When asked how commuters felt about the limited effectiveness of road access controls, Oscar Puente agreed with this assessment: “Overall, but let’s see, we had a major attack on the railways from a security perspective that was not on the AVE. A decision has to be made, and it’s a delicate thing, because you make that decision, and if someone happens to do something, of course, if the world falls on top of you.”
Moreover, he pointed out that Spain is also unique in this sense: “The truth is that these individual controls exist in our country. In the rest of Europe, you ride a high-speed train without having any kind of control over the equipment. And I think that I am, at some point, someone who has to change it.”