An amendment to Spain’s Sustainable Mobility Act could force the state-owned railway to return to its old claims system, compensating travellers delayed by 15 minutes or more.
Spain’s state railway Renfe will soon be obliged to compensate passengers who are delayed by more than 15 minutes on high-speed Ave lines and long-distance services.
This follows a vote in the Spanish Congress on Thursday to return to the previous compensation criteria, which was changed in 2024 after the public company paid out €42 million in refunds the previous year.
The change was included in an amendment to Spain’s Sustainable Mobility Act proposed by the opposition People’s Party and supported with votes from a cross-section of parties including far-right Vox, Catalan separatist parties Junts per Catalunya and ERC, former government coalition member Podemos, and the leftist Galician party BNG.
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The vote has been viewed sceptically by Spain’s Transport Ministry, and reports in the Spanish press suggest that Renfe wants to maintain the current rules on compensation which only refunds for delays of an hour or more and that it is actively searching for ways to bypass the change.
For passengers, in practical terms this means that compensation for delays of 15 minutes or more on high-speed Ave and Avlo, Alvia, Euromed, and Intercity services will be reinstated. According to the draft text approved in Congress, Renfe must compensate 50 percent of the ticket price for delays of 15 minutes or more, and reimburse 100 percent of the price when the delay is 30 minutes or more.
However, Transport Minister Oscar Puente has questioned the effectiveness of the amendment, noting that the state-owned Renfe may be disadvantaged in the free market. “Let’s see how far it goes,” Puente said noncommittally as the amendment was approved.
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Ministry sources briefed the Spanish press that the return to old compensation rules is a “demagogic and populist” measure and only seeks “a press headline.”
Returning to the 15-minute compensation model will, they argue, put the public company at a competitive disadvantage compared to private foreign operators in the market, such as Ouigo or Iryo, which only refund or compensate for delays of over an hour.
From Renfe, according to news agency EFE, several sources also claim that the amendment seeks to punish them, favouring the private companies. “It wants to penalise the public company that offers a fundamental service to millions of people and that is essential for the structuring of Spain,” they said.
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