The general deputy of Bizkaia, Elixabete Etxanobe, has defended that the aid to public transport planned for 2027 must be defined jointly with the rest of the competent administrations and has advanced that this very Friday they will be debated within the Basque Transport Authority (ATE). At the same time, she has stressed that, regardless of what happens with the current "conjunctural" discounts, in Bizkaia "free of charge up to age 12 does not expire, the new zoning will arrive soon and transfers will stop being paid throughout 2027".
Etxanobe spoke this Wednesday at the plenary session of the General Assemblies of Bizkaia at the initiative of EH Bildu. Its representative, Raúl Méndez, warned that, despite the fact that the current discounts on public transport end on December 31, citizens still do not know "what situation they will find themselves in as of January 1".
From EH Bildu they have highlighted that free access for under-15s with personalized Barik, the 50% reduction in youth temporary tickets and the general reduction of 40% in the main temporary tickets and in the Barik stored-value ticket "have contributed to easing the cost of daily mobility for thousands of users and to greater use of public transport, coinciding with goals of decarbonization, reduction of private traffic and sustainable mobility".
Méndez has insisted that "the debate is not what is going to be done in Madrid" regarding the financing of the discounts, but rather "what Bizkaia wants to do and what it needs". For this reason, he has called for not "limiting ourselves to waiting for events" because, in his view, a "responsible" administration cannot "delay until the last moment".
Along these lines, he has defended that tariff policy is "a fundamental instrument" to promote collective transport. At the same time, he has criticized that, despite the fact that "there is political consensus" to implement a new tariff model "more just" based on usage and income, "no result" has yet materialized that would allow its implementation.
A model of its own and a plan since 2023
In her response, the General Deputy has claimed that Bizkaia is facing the end of the legislature "with a solid position, major infrastructures underway, a fairer fare system, public bicycles extended to the entire territory and demand at historic highs" in collective transport. She reiterated that "free travel up to the age of 12 does not expire, the new zoning is coming soon and transfers will stop being charged throughout 2027".
The provincial official has stressed the need to "coordinate" among all institutions with responsibilities in mobility and has announced that "on next October 30 the Provincial Council will meet within the framework of the Euskadi Transport Authority to address, among other points, the framework of discounts on 2027 tickets".
The jeltzale deputy has reproached EH Bildu for demanding that she "not look to Madrid" and exercise "leadership", while "it does not apply what they ask here where they govern there", citing the Mancomunidad of the Pamplona region, where the 2027 fares have already been set but they have left the prices of the subsidized cards "pending whether the central Government extends the discounts".
"I am not reproaching them, I think it is, in fact, the reasonable thing when a decisive part of the discount is paid in this case by the Government of Spain. I ask for coherence", she told Méndez. In her view, "the difference is not in who looks to Madrid", but "in who has a plan for when Madrid is not there" and Bizkaia "has had it since 2023: fewer zones, free transfers, simpler passes and income-based discounts, with its own resources".
She highlighted the impact of this set of measures on public transport, "with sustained and unprecedented growth" that made it possible to reach in 2025 a "historic record" of 215.2 million trips, 8.6% more than the previous year and 15% more in two years.
According to Etxanobe, these figures "confirm that the citizens of Bizkaia respond to a quality offer with growing and moreover loyal use". For this reason, she considers that "recognizing the effect of the discounts is necessary" but also "the work to sustain and improve the quality of the service".
He recalled that the "cyclical" discounts in transport were put into place in an economic "extraordinary" context and linked to Royal Decrees approved in recent years, but he stressed that the Provincial Council, together with other institutions with responsibilities in Transport, is working so that "mobility in public transport is more comfortable and accessible" for the population of Bizkaia and that, "if these cyclical aids were to disappear, here a own and stable system of discounts would be maintained".
In this regard, he specified that "the monitoring of the current discounts must be agreed upon with the rest of the institutions with responsibility in public transport".
According to the data provided, this year the Provincial Council will allocate 12 million euros to sustain the discounts, to which are added "structural measures so that Bizkaia has a more integrated and fairer transport system". Among those measures he mentioned the permanent free travel for children under 12, the reduction from five to three tariff zones and free transfers between operators.
Regarding the 2027 accounts, he advanced that this same week the Provincial Council will approve the budget project and send it to the General Assemblies, with "willingness to negotiate and agree on proposals that are viable and beneficial for citizens".
During the session, both the general deputy and the EH Bildu representative had a remembrance for the victims of the accident that occurred in Toledo and expressed their solidarity with their relatives.