How to Register for Free Train Travel in Spain
This week Renfe announced that it opened up registrations for the free travel passes that will allow users to travel for free on Cercanías, Rodalias and Media Distancia routes from September 1 to December 31, 2022.
How to Register
Travel passes will not be made available until August 24, 2022, however users are encouraged to register in advance either on the Renfe website, the Renfe app or the Renfe Cercanías app—the Renfe website indicates that registering in advance will make it easier to get your abono (travel pass) later on, and encourages users to use the app to avoid long lines in the train station.
How to Get Your Free Travel Voucher
On August 24, registered users will be able to request passes through the app, on the website, at self-service machines or at station ticket offices. To prevent infrequent travelers from taking advantage of the subsidy, a deposit of €10 euros is required for the Cercanías and Rodalies, and €20 for Media Distancia.
You will be refunded your deposit if you make a minimum of 16 trips—four per month—with your pass. To make sure your trips are registered, it’s important to validate your pass at the beginning of each trip and, in some cases, also at the end. If you make the minimum number of trips, your money will be refunded via the same method your deposit was made. Renfe recommends that you make the deposit by card so that your deposit will be refunded to your account automatically after the end of the year. If you pay the deposit in cash, you will need to request a refund at a Renfe ticketing window in person.
Though travel will be free, you will need to reserve your travel in advance. Because a large influx of travelers is expected Renfe recommends that travelers create an account and pay the deposit as early as possible, preferably before September 1. Also, if you download the Renfe app you will be able to plan and reserve your trips in advance before all the places are taken.
Registering: One user’s Experience
I was curious to see if there was a registration process specific to applying for the free travel passes, or if the announcement was simply a campaign to get users registered in advance to avoid crashing the system on the first day, so I applied.
Renfe Cercanías App
Since Renfe pushes users to register via one of its apps, I downloaded the Renfe Cercanías app. However I experienced a number of problems both in the registration process and in trying to sign in to my account once my registration was finally confirmed.
The app was easy to find and install on my phone. When I opened it, it was in English—I assume because my phone’s default language is English. There is a step-by-step explanation of the app registration process on Renfe’s website (in Spanish), which was helpful because without it I wouldn't have known that for the “Mobile payment password” field I needed to create a four digit PIN number. But once I figured that out I thought the rest would be a breeze, but no.
I use a password manager to save and randomly generate my passwords, so I opened my handy PW manager and had it generate a 25 character password using upper- and lower-case letters, numbers and special characters. No dice. I got a generic “wrong password” message. Thinking that perhaps it was too long, I generated a second password, this time with 19 characters. It still didn't work. My third attempt with a 12 character password seemed to work. I received a brief on-screen confirmation on the app, as well as an email confirmation. However, I was never able to sign on to the app, even after multiple attempts. Each time I received the message “We are not available to help you right now. Please try again later.”
Renfe Website
Unable to access my account via the app, I was curious to see if my registration was valid for use on the Renfe website. I attempted to sign in with the data I used to create my account via the Cercanías app. Oddly, the website does have my user ID, password, first and last names and NIE, however before allowing me to access the site it prompts me to add additional info to my account via a popup window. Upon filling out the additional required data it kicks me back to the sign-in page. I repeated this never-ending circle several times before giving up.
Renfe App
With my first two attempts unsuccessful, I downloaded the regular Renfe app. It’s worth a try, right? Using the same user name and password that I created on the Cercanías app I was finally able to login.
After going through the process—or rather attempting to—online and on both apps, I was finally able to register and sign in. From what I can tell, the process doesn't seem to be designed for the free travel passes; it appears that the goal is to get users registered in advance. Hopefully, the kinks will get ironed out and the payment processes (for the deposit) and ticketing will be less difficult once August 24th rolls around. I’m keeping my fingers crossed.