This initiative coincides with the start of school activities after the summer holidays and aims to promote the use of public transport. During both days, from 00:00 to 23:59, all journeys on municipal buses will be free, with the sole exception of the Airport Express line.
Users must validate their transport pass. Those without one will receive a single ticket free of charge from the driver. For its part, bicimad joins the measure by offering trips of up to 30 minutes for free. The electric bicycle system has 683 stations and 8,385 bicycles distributed across the 21 districts of the capital.
The free public transport in Madrid has proven to be an effective tool for encouraging its use. In previous periods, over 96.61 million passengers have been transported by EMT Madrid during 32 free periods. More than 18 million of these corresponded to users who did not habitually use the service.
The measure was initially implemented in January 2021. Since then, it has been progressively expanded, adding millions of non-habitual users in subsequent years. In 2025, for example, it was activated during seven periods, adding 2.7 million new users and recording a peak of 1.94 million travelers in a single day (November 28th).
Bicimad joined this initiative in 2025, registering 219,156 trips during the free days. In 2026, free travel has been applied on 11 days, including reasons such as the visit of Pope Leo XIV, and has added 2.76 million non-habitual users, with 383,772 bicycle trips.
The Madrid City Council will continue to implement this measure during periods of high demand and episodes of high pollution. The objective is to continue promoting the use of public transport and bicycles as alternatives to private vehicles, thereby contributing to reducing congestion, emissions, and moving towards more sustainable mobility in the city.
