This coming 1 July, the Barcelona Metropolitan Transport Authority (ATM), a consortium that includes the Generalitat de Catalunya, Barcelona City Council, the Barcelona Metropolitan Area (AMB) and the Association of Municipalities for Mobility and Urban Transport (AMTU), is starting the compensating procedure for time-limited public transport tickets that could not be used during the Covid-19 health emergency.

The price of lost travel can be recovered in two different ways, but the proposed mechanism in both cases aims to provide a quick response that precludes the need to go to face-to-face service desks in order to avoid crowding and the presence of too many customers, neither of which is advisable in the current situation.

It is worth remembering in this regard that neither any information nor any procedures for obtaining compensation for such tickets will be available at the network’s customer service desks.

So what should I do? The ATM is providing two ways to obtain compensation for tickets:

Automatic compensation

This is the mechanism for people who had already started using their tickets before 14 March and whose cards expired without having used it at any time during lockdown.

In these cases, users can insert the expired card into any transport network access validator, and the validation system will print a new expiry date on the ticket, so that they get back all those days or trips that they were unable to use from 14 March.

This compensation route covers two types of case:

– Monthly tickets (T-usual, T-grup and T-familiar): In order to obtain an automatic time extension,
the ticket must have been used for the first time before 14 March and not used at all between 14 March and 11 April.

– Quarterly tickets (T-jove, T-trimestre and T-70/90 FM/FN): In order to obtain an automatic time extension, the ticket must have been used for the first time before 14 March and not used at all between 14 March and 10 June.

Once it has been validated again, time will start running from the new date, adding the number of days that were lost. We therefore recommend that you do not start the procedure for the recovery of lost days until you actually need to use the ticket. You can carry out this compensation procedure at any time until the end of 2020.

If the validation machine refuses to change the ticket expiry date, you will see a message that says “Ticket expired”. In that case, you must apply for compensation by filling in a form, as the most likely reason is that the ticket was validated at some point after 14 March.

Compensation by filling in a form

For those people who did use their tickets after 14 March and during the state of alert, either for work or for essential services, the ATM has made available a dynamic form where you must enter the details of each ticket and person so that the right to compensation can be considered on a case-by-case basis.

The form will ask you, among other things, for photographs of both sides of the ticket for which you are seeking compensation in order to obtain the exact details of use. This is in addition to personal and work documentation showing that you belong to an essential service, if applicable.

Once the information has been received, the ATM will assess the right to compensation and will calculate the number of days for which compensation is payable. From here, it will create a season ticket with unlimited travel for the number of days that may be decided in each case. You can collect the season ticket from 1 September from your choice of a number of collection points.

These tickets will be valid until 31 March 2021, and you can request compensation through the form at any time until the end of 2020.

This route also includes the option of compensation for the days of free public transport established for key workers between 2 and 9 April. These are people who had already started to use a season ticket by then (first validation after 13 March) and who, in practice, did not take advantage of the free travel because the validation machine mistakenly discounted the trip.

The ATM estimates that there are about 600,000 tickets eligible for compensation that could not be used during lockdown and have expired without the possibility of using them as planned. Most of these will receive automatic compensation that can be processed remotely and without the need to talk to anyone on the phone or fill in any forms.

A telephone helpline for compensation-specific queries has been established. This is available on telephone number 93 120 53 30 from 9 am to 9 pm, Monday to Friday except public holidays.

Further information