The liberalization of rail transport has driven a rise in train travel across Spain, especially with high-speed services. January saw a 26.5% jump in high-speed passengers, nearing 2.6 million, according to the Passenger Transport Statistics released by the National Institute of Statistics (INE).
More than 444.1 million people used public transport in January, up 13.6% from the same month in 2023, according to INE data that highlights a notable surge in rail movements within the country.
By segment, urban transport increased 15.1% year over year, while interurban transport grew 12.9%. Within interurban, bus travel rose 18.3%, and long-distance rail grew 20.7%.
The INE figures released on Monday show urban transport carried over 280.4 million passengers in January. Metro travel rose 10.7% year over year, and urban bus transport climbed 18.4%.
Meanwhile, interurban transport was used by 125.4 million travelers, up 12.9% from January 2023. By mode, bus transport increased 18.3%, rail 7.5%, and air travel 5.1%.
In rail transport, commuter services grew 6.3% to 47.1 million, regional services rose 12.8% to 3.6 million, and long-distance rail exceeded 3.2 million with a 20.7% increase.
The fastest growth came from high-speed rail, with passengers increasing 26.5% to surpass 2.58 million travelers.
In air transport, peninsular passengers rose 6.9% to 1.2 million, those traveling with other territories reached 1.5 million, and inter-island travelers grew 4.6% to 417,000 in the latest month of the year.
Growth in special and discretionary transport
More than 38.2 million users relied on special and discretionary transport in January across Spain, a 5.7% year-over-year rise, according to INE figures.
The number of passengers in special transport rose 5.5% and topped 29.0 million. Within this category, school travel climbed 7.5%, while work-related trips fell 1.1%. Discretionary transport grew 6.3% compared with January 2023, surpassing 9.1 million travelers.
All autonomous communities posted positive year-over-year changes in bus transport. The largest increases occurred in the Region of Murcia (41.4%), Canary Islands (27.1%), and Extremadura (25.8%), while the Basque Country (7.6%), Galicia (11.9%), and Aragon (15.5%) recorded the smallest gains.
As for metro travel, every city with a metro system reported higher figures than a year earlier. Malaga’s metro led the rise with a 109.3% increase, while Madrid’s metro showed the smallest uptick at 8.2%.