Now train travel is free in Spain, are my tickets valid?

Q Having paid for train tickets around Spain in October, would they still be valid now rail travel seems to be free there?

‘Stelfc’

A Spain is picking up where Germany left off in making rail travel almost free for several months, except for high-speed trains. The aims are the same: to lure passengers back to the trains after the worst of the coronavirus pandemic; to persuade people to switch from car to train for the benefit of the environment; and to help with the cost of living crisis.

Germany had a very straightforward proposition: invest a nominal €9 (£7.80) for a ticket valid throughout June, July or August, and you can use any of the nation’s trains up to “regional express” level whenever you like during that month. Handily, it also worked on city trams, local buses and even some river ferry boats.

Spain is offering deals for rail only from now until the end of the year. But the government and train operator, Renfe, have made things much more complicated, with rules that are designed to help regular travellers rather than short-term international visitors. The passenger can choose a deal for either local suburban services around big cities (known as Cercanias except in Catalonia, where they are called Rodalies), Media Distancia (“middle distance”) trains or both.

For either type, the traveller first registers: at renfe.com or on the Renfe Cercanias or Renfe app. They can then acquire an abono gratuito (free pass) through the Renfe app or at a self-service ticket machine or a station ticket office. The pass requires a deposit of €10 for shorter journeys or €20 for middle-distance trains. It comes with a unique QR code. The offer for frequent travellers is that, if they make at least 16 trips before the offer ends on 31 December 2022, they get their initial investment back.

As you can deduce, even on a short visit it could be worth the tourist buying a pass – for example, to explore the areas around Madrid and Barcelona or to make longer journeys by stringing together Media Distancia services and avoiding high-speed Ave trains. A traveller would simply make the €10 or €20 investment knowing they will not qualify for a refund but that they will still save handsomely.

For people like you who have already booked tickets, they will remain valid. But if you feel you could have benefitted from the deal, you may well feel annoyed – especially if the trains you take turn out to be crowded with passengers taking advantage of the move.

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Q We are looking at trains to go up to London to pay our respects to the Queen. We can travel on Wednesday from Taunton but the fare is £570 return for two – with a railcard. Or on another day from Stafford for £470 return. How is this helping ordinary people join in the historic events? Rail companies – be ashamed of yourselves.

Name supplied

A Fortunately there are plenty of ways of reaching London for less than that. I believe you have looked at the early trains from Taunton; if you are prepared to arrive at London Paddington at 10.06am or later, the off-peak return fare for two falls to £236 return – still a lot, I agree, but 60 per cent less than the figure you started with.

If you are prepared to travel out from Taunton at 10.04am (arriving 12.06pm) or later, then you qualify for a super off-peak ticket costing £178 for two. With your railcard (which is unlikely to be valid before then), the price will be £117.50 – which looks reasonable to me. That’s less than £60 each for a 300-mile round trip.

From Stafford, the savings are even greater if you are flexible about timing, because you can take advantage of the slightly slower trains and much lower fares on London Northwestern Railway. In return for taking half-an-hour longer than Avanti West Coast, you can get a train that arrives at London Euston at 10.30am, for example, for £90 return for the pair of you. If you choose a train on which you can use your railcard, the total is a slim £59.40.

There is a wider issue behind your question, which is: why don’t train firms do away with peak pricing over the next week, so everyone can avail of off-peak tickets? I have asked a number of long-distance operators that question, and my understanding is that the Department for Transport will need to sign off such a decision. While it may look as though the rail companies might need to feel some shame, in fact it is ministers who will decide; they call all the shots in the railway now.

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Q Is there a UK airport that I can fly from to Rimini in Italy?

Beverley K

A Not direct. The lovely Adriatic resort – and, just up the hill, the nation of San Marino – is one of a fair number of Italian towns and cities whose airports are intermittently connected to the UK. But currently there are no direct links. Ryanair flies in from Austria and Poland, so at a pinch you could change planes in (say) Vienna or Krakow – though any connecting flight using low-cost airlines comes with uncertainties attached. If the first flight is late, the second won’t wait and the airlines involved will generally shrug off any responsibility for a missed transfer.

I then checked flights to Forli, about 20 miles away. Like Rimini, it is served by Ryanair – but although I once flew in to Forli (from whose airport you can handily walk into town) the main route now, unhelpfully, seems to be to and from Katowice in Poland. You can, though, fly into either Ancona or Bologna, both about 50 miles away, and travel onward to Rimini by regular and inexpensive trains. Both are linked by Ryanair from London Stansted, with British Airways also connecting London Heathrow with Bologna.

Your choice could come down to a simple matter of airport connections. Thanks to the remarkable Marconi Express monorail link (a little shuttle tram) you can travel from Bologna airport to the railway station in just seven minutes – though for a steep €9.20 (£8). From Ancona, the bus trip takes around 20 minutes (fare €5.50/£4.80) but there are long gaps between departures.

In your position I would make the most of the opportunity provided by the lack of direct flights: build in time to explore gorgeous Bologna, and/or take one route outbound and the other inbound.

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