By Ashlee Caliz
Copyright majorcadailybulletin
The Balearic Government and Palma City Council unveiled on Monday the single card for travelling on all public transport across Mallorca. The new card can be applied for from October onwards, both at the offices of the Mallorca Transport Consortium and at municipal offices. Holders of the current ‘Tarjeta Ciudadana’ will need to apply for it, as the Palma card will stop being valid as a travel pass at the end of the first quarter of 2026, but those with an intermodal card will be able to continue using it as before.
The announcement was made at Palma City Hall by the Minister for Mobility, José Luis Mateo, the Director General of Transport, Lorena del Valle, and the Councillor for Mobility, Antonio Deudero. All three described the measure as “historic,” because, beyond the visible changes for passengers, its implementation involved major technological upgrades and represents a step towards integrating the fare systems.
Until now, the intermodal card already functioned as a kind of single card, in a context of free travel. Intermodal users could travel on EMT services, but not the other way around: the ‘Tarjeta Ciudadana’ allowed travel only on the metro, not on TIB buses or trains. The technology adopted will be that of the intermodal card, which is already held by 80% of citizen card users, according to Del Valle.
These changes are part of a plan for a future fare system based on concentric zones, which will involve reviewing the current fare tables and will aim to reward passengers the more they use public transport. At present, intermodal users do not pay on EMT services because a 100% discount is applied, but if this measure is removed, general fares will need to be defined according to various factors (distance travelled, frequency of use, discounts, inter-municipal agreements, etc.). The new single card can also be recharged online.
Additionally, the changes will allow, for the first time, payment by contactless card on EMT buses—a measure long requested by passengers. The system will treat the contactless card as a travel pass, so it can recognise when a transfer is made or apply discounts when multiple tickets are bought at once with the same card (for example, a family boarding a bus). However, since it will not be linked to a passenger’s profile within EMT, the standard fare charged will be the full price, without the resident discount (currently, a single ticket costs two euros).
