Palma City Council and the Government have agreed that Palma’s city buses will be free throughout 2023. Thus, they have approved a 100% discount for all those who travel with the EMT Palma during the coming year. Next, the Board of Directors of EMT Palma approved the new fares for 2023 with a 100% discount on the price of season tickets and multi-journey tickets, as approved in the General State Budget Law for 2023.

This measure is part of the set of measures of the social shield of direct aid to citizens, the self-employed and companies and the promotion of the reactivation of employment and the economy. The agreement that has been reached between the City Council and the Government involves allocating around 20 million euros to Palma’s EMT, a figure that is estimated to be enough to cover the passenger demand forecast for the year 2023.

Free buses with citizen’s card

The mayor, José Hila, explained that this measure will allow “the EMT to be free for a year for everyone who has a citizen’s card. It is a measure to be close to families, it saves them money and also helps us to support public transport in Palma,” he said. “We will be the largest Spanish city with free public transport”, he added, and recalled that this milestone has been achieved with the collaboration of the central government, the regional government and also Palma City Council. Hila recalled all the measures that have been taken to promote sustainable mobility, such as the launch of the tram, fare integration and the renewal of the fleet, which will mean that by the end of the term of office 92% of the fleet will have been renewed with 165 new buses.

Marí, for his part, explained that “each bus represents 50 fewer cars, especially if we do it in a city like Palma, where most of the journeys are short distances”, he explained, and stressed the importance of introducing free urban transport. “All public transport: urban, interurban, train and bus will be free from 1 January”.

The free system that has been approved will require users to have an activated citizen’s card. There are currently more than 376,837 active citizen cards.