dutchflyer
Established Member
- Joined
- 17 Oct 2013
- Messages
- 1,412
Hello all, olá, greetings from sunny Spain, just off Torremolinos.
Getting back to the issue of this ´golden card´ or Tarjeta Dorada , senior discount card for those from 60+.
Yesterday I went to Malaga (by bus, easier from the place I stay, cheaper too) and visited this big shopping centre with station inside, Zambrano. Into the ticket centre and asked for the card and showed my ID. That was easy and yes, still as was 3 yrs ago. You get the standard cardboard ticket similar to old-style airline boarding passes, the stub is the ticket (with name, ID-nr and expiry date on), the larger rest of card has all the conditions printed on-personal, to be shown with ID etc.
Now the rest of the puzzle, back as probably grumpy was told then:
RENFE has what they call ´larga recorrida´=long distance and cercanias (rodalies in Catalunya). LC is today always fully reserved, Cerc. is just hop on.
You get 25 or 40% discount depending on type of train.
BUT the cerc. lines have now gone to chipcard-type ticketing. There is also since around 3 yrs the RENFE es TU chipcard, plastic, with foto+name on, and thus has to be produced on demand and sent home. It is like an empty shell to load tickets on. From what I understood when one wants to use the discount on cerc. it has to be loaded on this card, so its indispensible to use the profit then. Probably to prevent fraud. But in the past one had to set your TD for a reader to check that. This was also the way the free add-on ticket to a LC ticket was issued.
For just single ticketing one is charged 50 cts for a disposable chipcard, but this can be used a few times again-only for same type of trip (its zonal). Or you can now for full fare save the 50 cts and tap in/out by bank or creditcard. Have not yet discovered if this would work with the TD. Some spanish banks can add the TD feature to their bankcards, but thats of course only if you have your account with them and hence live in Spain.
Next hurdle: around Malaga public transport is in a consorcio and has its own chipcard, cost 1.80, tap on boarding and you get a much reduced fare, and even still a ticket!. So I wanted to ride the new metro (which uses just normal trams, but is organised like a subway). After a while of trying to tell the very helpful lady at ´assistencia clientes´ then explained she could only sell their own same-same cards, I had to go to a tabacos/estanca to buy this general one, said to be valid in all towns in Andalucia. Had I just known before........It was saturday, and this tabacos was closed-it was 14.05 and was opened till 14.00, That is lunch time so all streetside restrts etc were filled with people enjoying their ´menu del dia´. I cannot really get used to these spanish timings. The ´real british´ restrt in this street starts serving its full english brekky from......11.00!
Some 2 days ago I did a circular trip_Mijas, then Fuengirola (where I stayed in the Xmas holidays once, long before 2000), mostly by bus. Yes, Fgr station-as also Torremolinos central, is half under renovation and looks like a dump.
Better news for locals and registered residents over there: their ´ayuntamient´ has decided to offer them (cost 3€) a pass/chipcard to ride the revamped local urban busnetwork for free, to start for this year (info from a local free newspaper). It stated that Marbella, one more sunny settlement further on along this ´costa del crime´ already has this offer. And thats for anyone, not just seniors, allthough in all honesty in these off-season times it looks like its a senior holidayhome here.
Getting back to the issue of this ´golden card´ or Tarjeta Dorada , senior discount card for those from 60+.
Yesterday I went to Malaga (by bus, easier from the place I stay, cheaper too) and visited this big shopping centre with station inside, Zambrano. Into the ticket centre and asked for the card and showed my ID. That was easy and yes, still as was 3 yrs ago. You get the standard cardboard ticket similar to old-style airline boarding passes, the stub is the ticket (with name, ID-nr and expiry date on), the larger rest of card has all the conditions printed on-personal, to be shown with ID etc.
Now the rest of the puzzle, back as probably grumpy was told then:
RENFE has what they call ´larga recorrida´=long distance and cercanias (rodalies in Catalunya). LC is today always fully reserved, Cerc. is just hop on.
You get 25 or 40% discount depending on type of train.
BUT the cerc. lines have now gone to chipcard-type ticketing. There is also since around 3 yrs the RENFE es TU chipcard, plastic, with foto+name on, and thus has to be produced on demand and sent home. It is like an empty shell to load tickets on. From what I understood when one wants to use the discount on cerc. it has to be loaded on this card, so its indispensible to use the profit then. Probably to prevent fraud. But in the past one had to set your TD for a reader to check that. This was also the way the free add-on ticket to a LC ticket was issued.
For just single ticketing one is charged 50 cts for a disposable chipcard, but this can be used a few times again-only for same type of trip (its zonal). Or you can now for full fare save the 50 cts and tap in/out by bank or creditcard. Have not yet discovered if this would work with the TD. Some spanish banks can add the TD feature to their bankcards, but thats of course only if you have your account with them and hence live in Spain.
Next hurdle: around Malaga public transport is in a consorcio and has its own chipcard, cost 1.80, tap on boarding and you get a much reduced fare, and even still a ticket!. So I wanted to ride the new metro (which uses just normal trams, but is organised like a subway). After a while of trying to tell the very helpful lady at ´assistencia clientes´ then explained she could only sell their own same-same cards, I had to go to a tabacos/estanca to buy this general one, said to be valid in all towns in Andalucia. Had I just known before........It was saturday, and this tabacos was closed-it was 14.05 and was opened till 14.00, That is lunch time so all streetside restrts etc were filled with people enjoying their ´menu del dia´. I cannot really get used to these spanish timings. The ´real british´ restrt in this street starts serving its full english brekky from......11.00!
Some 2 days ago I did a circular trip_Mijas, then Fuengirola (where I stayed in the Xmas holidays once, long before 2000), mostly by bus. Yes, Fgr station-as also Torremolinos central, is half under renovation and looks like a dump.
Better news for locals and registered residents over there: their ´ayuntamient´ has decided to offer them (cost 3€) a pass/chipcard to ride the revamped local urban busnetwork for free, to start for this year (info from a local free newspaper). It stated that Marbella, one more sunny settlement further on along this ´costa del crime´ already has this offer. And thats for anyone, not just seniors, allthough in all honesty in these off-season times it looks like its a senior holidayhome here.
