Barcelona to have 14,700 new park&ride lots with discounts for public transport users

The Catalan government will build 14,677 new park&ride lots across 102 train and bus stations in 81 municipalities in the Barcelona area. While parking will cost, officials announced Friday morning that there would be discounts for those public transport users.

These places will be available for cars, motorcycles, bicycles, and electric scooters and will also offer a collection point for parcels and EV charging stations.

Currently, there are 13,000 park&ride spots across the Barcelona area, and the goal is to reach 26,000 by 2030. 

Parking ticket prices have yet to be concreted, as Barcelona's metropolitan area transport authority director Pere Torres said during a press conference. The goal, however, is to have a price attractive enough for those who do not use public transport to encourage them to do it.

It will be "more expensive" for those who just use Park&Ride as parking, instead of users who then take the train or the bus who will have an "almost free" parking ticket.

Right now, officials expect to use the T-Mobilitat tap-and-go system and include the parking ticket system as part of the overall public transport price.

These Park&Ride lots will be located across 81 municipalities of Barcelona's metropolitan area, leaving the ones in the city center aside. 

The "philosophy" of the project is "that the vast majority of the journey is made using public transport," Torres said. 

Barcelona's airport and port areas have also been left without a Park&Ride lot as they are just zones with a "specific use."

These new parkings will be distributed beside ten bus stations, 28 Ferrocarrils de la Generalitat (FGC) train stations, and 64 by Renfe train stations. Some of these will have over 300 spots available.