Tickets for buses and trains in the Metropolitan Area of Buenos Aires (AMBA) will increase by 40 percent starting next Monday, after being frozen for more than three years.
The measure was made official on Friday through resolution 514/2022 published in the Official Gazette, and it maintains the social rate, that is, the 55 percent discount on the ticket for designated groups with social attributions through the UP card.
It also establishes the continuity of economic assistance to the sectors of the population with greater social vulnerability with the social fee implemented through the SUBE card, to generate an environment of equal opportunities, tools and resources in accessibility to public transport.
The benefit reaches retirees and/or pensioners, workers in private homes; veterans of the Falklands War; social monotributistas and beneficiaries of certain government programs.
In the same way, the system of Red Sube in the AMBAwhich cover five combinations of public transport -either trains, buses, metrobus and subway- in two hours, and which applies a discount of 50 percent of the fare at the time of the second trip, and 75 percent less than the value of the rate from the third trip made.
The price of bus and train tickets in the AMBA had been frozen for three years, and the measure had been anticipated by the Chief of Staff, Juan Manzur, in his statement before the National Congress.
As of Monday, the bus ticket will have these values:
• In the section of 0-3 km it goes from $18 to $25.20
• In the section of 3-6 km it goes from $20 to $28
• In the section of 6-12 km it goes from $21 to $29.40
• In the section of 12-27 km it goes from $22 to $30.80
• More than 27 km goes from $23 to $32.20
The value of train tickets:
• On the Mitre, Sarmiento and San Martín lines, the ticket will be $17.25
• On the Urquiza line $11.25
• On the Roca and Belgrano Sur lines of $10.75
• On the Belgrano Norte line $9.50
The increase takes place at times when The national government maintains a dispute with the business chambers of public transport, which demand the payment of overdue subsidies. Employers carry out a lockout in this framework that led to the reduction of service frequencies on several lines, which causes delays and affects users.
Authorities from the Ministry of Transport and representatives of the businessmen have already held a meeting to analyze the situation generated by the delay in the payment of subsidies, and to advance in the search for a solution.
“In order to maintain the economic-financial equation that allows the maintenance of the public service of automobile and rail passenger transport involved, in conditions of quality and efficiency, it is necessary to transfer part of the operating costs of such services to the rates”Ministry of Transport sources
Businessmen assure that “the lag is one month” and implies nearly 18 billion pesos for the 170 companies that operate in the metropolitan region, through some 300 bus lines.
Sources from the Ministry of Transport indicated that the costs generated for the sector by salary recompositions, increases in the prices of supplies and services were not translated into the rates, including diesel; the psychophysical examination to obtain the qualifying licenses, the price of rolling stock, as well as new costs related to the measures to prevent the spread of Covid-19.
“In order to maintain the economic-financial equation that allows the maintenance of the public service of automobile and rail passenger transport involved, in conditions of quality and efficiency, it is necessary to transfer part of the operating costs of such services to the rates,” sources from the Ministry of Transportation, headed by Alexis Guerrera, remarked at the time.
The increases will also impact the Tariff charts for long-distance branches linking the City of Buenos Aires with Mar del Plata, Bahía Blanca, Pinamar, Justo Daract, Tucumán, Córdoba, Rosario and Pehuajó; as well as in regional interurban services in Chaco, Salta, Neuquén, Entre Ríos, Córdoba and Misiones, and in extended local services in the Province of Buenos Aires.
To finalize the increase, the Ministry of Transport convened a Public consultation as a preliminary step, indicating to citizens the importance of implementing this instance of participation so that “citizens can express themselves in the modification of the rate schedules applicable to the services in question, and thus guarantee the principles of equality, publicity, informality and gratuity for all Argentine men and women”.
For three days they expressed opinions and proposals and all the comments were published, but in no case were they binding.
