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The increase in the price for subway tickets this year is an option to reduce Metrorex losses, especially since the tariff has not been increased for the past 5-6 years, Minister of Transport and Infrastructure, Catalin Drula, said on Thursday, according to AGERPRES.
"It's one of the options [the increase in the price for the subway ticket this year - editor's note]. I haven't discussed this yet, I am waiting for the new management to settle in, but the tariff has not been increased for the past 5-6 years. So we can work something in terms of revenues (...). We still need to be careful, however, since we are in a period of pandemic in which people are somehow afraid of public transport, although there is flexibility. When the tariff has not been increased for 5 years, only if we look at the inflation of the past 5 years, there should be at least an adjustment in this area. It could help the company, it will not completely fill the gap, but it could help," Catalin Drula told private television broadcaster Digi 24.
The Minister of Transport showed that a 20pct increase in the tariff would bring Metrorex additional revenues of 50 million lei per year, given that only for the operation of Segment 5 the company needs a subsidy of 150 million lei annually.
"In an estimate, the figures are approximate, a 20pct increase in the tariff area, on average, since the price for the two-trip ticket shouldn't be the same with the subscription price, can bring an additional 50 million per year, which helps, obviously. (...) There is no option to close the M5. (...) These are some bombs some like to launch. (...) At the moment, the M5 segment, the one in operation, costs 175 million per year and brings revenues of approximately 25 million. The rest, the 150 million difference, comes from our money, from the national budget, the money we should use to build highways and railways, in Moldova and in many other places," Drula said.
