Spanish public transport use drops by seven million passengers in one year

Over 378 million people used public transport in Spain in June – a 1.8% fall compared with the same month the year before when the figure stood at 385 million users.

According to the latest figures released by the National Statistics Institute on Monday, 226.6 million people used public transport in Spanish towns and cities in June – 0.7% less than the same month in 2013.

Subway train use dropped 1.1 percent, with the biggest fall seen in Madrid –2.2% – followed by Valencia and Barcelona. Overall bus use fell 0.4% with Madrid (3.3%), Extremadura, Castilla y León and Aragón seeing the biggest drops. But there were rises in the number of bus passengers in the Basque Country, the Canaries and Galicia.

The number of people using long-distance trains rose 7.5% compared with last June

More than 106.4 million passengers used inter-city transport in June – which represents a fall of 3.8% compared with the same month in 2013. The number of inter-city bus passengers dropped 3.7% percent, while rail passengers fell 4.4%.

However, the number of people using long-distance trains rose 7.5% compared with June of the previous year – to 2.5 million passengers.

Air transport experienced a similar increase with the number of people taking domestic flights rising 4.1% compared with June 2013 to reach 2.7 million.