• Passengers who park at the Mira-sol Centre building and then take the train will get a discount on parking rates
• This initiative is the result of an agreement between Ferrocarrils de la Generalitat de Catalunya and Sant Cugat Town Council to encourage the use of public transport

From this Friday, passengers on Ferrocarrils de la Generalitat de Catalunya (FGC) who park in the carpark of the Mira-sol Centre building (situated next to Mira-sol station) will benefit from a reduced parking rate. This initiative is the result of an agreement between FGC and Sant Cugat del Vallès Town Council (Vallès Occidental), which manages the car park, to increase the use of public transport as an alternative to private vehicles.

The presentation of the agreement was attended by the Councillor for Trade, Mayte Pérez; the General Manager of SPM Promocions Municipals de Sant Cugat del Vallès SA (Promusa), Lluís Hosta; and the Chairman of FGC, Enric Ticó.

The agreement between the two institutions allows passengers to park their vehicle in the Mira-sol Centre carpark at a reduced rate of 2 euros per day. To take advantage of this discount, passengers must have a validated FGC ticket and get a “car park ticket” from the FGC ticket machines.

The system is easy to use. Once the FGC passenger enters the Mira-sol Centre car park, they just need to take the car park entrance ticket and park their car as usual. When they return to pick up their vehicle, they insert their train ticket into the FGC ticket machine to get a “car park ticket” which gives them a discount code. When the customer gets to the Mira-sol Centre carpark, they insert the car park entrance ticket and the discount ticket into the payment machine. The machine will then show the sum to be paid (at a reduced rate).

The carpark in the Mira-sol Centre building has 305 parking spaces. These spaces are for people using the Mira-sol Centre building and, now, for FGC passengers too. The carpark is open from Monday to Saturday, 8 am to 11 pm.

The scheme is just one of several actions that FGC is carrying out to promote intermodal public transport, thereby helping to improve mobility in Catalonia and to increase customer satisfaction.

FGC is encouraging the use of public transport by offering more than 3,500 parking spaces at its stations, so that users can park their cars and then travel by train. The range of alternatives to the use of private cars also includes station bus services. There are currently 21 different routes of this kind which are coordinated with FGC train timetables and total over 1.5 million journeys a year.

Promoting intermodal transport

FGC also promotes bike-train intermodal transport and is involved in various schemes such as the European BiTiBi project, which promotes energy efficient transport, as well as services and parking for bicycles at Sarrià station (Biciestació) and the parking and recharging area for electric bikes at Sant Quirze station.

When it comes to electric vehicles, FGC provides charging points at its carparks at Martorell Enllaç, Sant Cugat, Sant Quirze and Volpelleres stations. It is also working with companies like Cooltra to promote interchange between the train and electric motorbikes.