If you have lived in the Canaries for the past couple of years and take the bus regularly, you have probably stopped thinking about fares. You may want to start again. Free public transport for regular users is backed by national law only until 31 December 2026. Nothing has been signed for 2027.
On Tuesday the Canarian government’s director general for transport and mobility, María Fernández, made that point to a meeting of national and regional transport directors in Madrid, which she joined by video. She asked Madrid to approve the extension decree as soon as possible. Timing is the problem. Parliament has been dissolved for the general election on 29 November, so any decree law would have to go through the Diputación Permanente, the standing committee that acts while parliament is dissolved.
“We are still waiting for the funds we accounted for at the end of September,” Fernández said, as reported by Canarias7, “but what really worries us is that the extension decree won’t go through after 29 November, which would leave the Canaries without free transport in 2027.”
The deadline comes from Spain’s Sustainable Mobility Law. It required the Canarian government to show by 31 January 2026 that the 100% discount was in place, and to keep it until 31 December. That is where the legal cover ends.
Fernández argues the extension is legally straightforward because it is not a new policy, just the continuation of an existing one, and “the conditions that created the decree still apply”. It is a fair argument. But it depends on how Madrid and the parliamentary groups weigh the urgency in the middle of a campaign, and nobody can promise that.
What if the decree does not come? Canarias Ahora raises the option of the regional government paying for free travel itself. It has powers over much of land transport and can set its own discounts. But keeping the full 100% would mean picking up a bill that the state has so far largely covered by compensating councils and operators. No one has offered to do that yet.
The same meeting did produce some good news. Madrid has proposed bilateral talks on a protocol to fit the Canaries into the new national single travel pass, the Abono Único Estatal. In September the regional transport department had written to the ministry because the scheme, as published in the official gazette, effectively left the islands out. Fernández now says the door is open and expects the Canarian resident pass to fit within it.
Meanwhile, the Título Único de Transporte en Canarias, a single ticket for buses and trams across the whole archipelago, is said to be close to launch. Island councils have been given money to adapt their systems. A public call is expected in December for eligible residents to test the pilot technology while travelling between several islands.
For now, nothing changes at the validator until the end of the year. What happens in Madrid in November will decide whether your card starts deducting fares again in January.
