Genoa – “Public transport used for doing business”. With this thesis, the regional secretary of the Democratic Party Davide Natale wrote to the Transport Regulatory Authority Art to ask for an opinion on the increase in train tickets for non-Ligurian passengers for the Cinque Terre locations, taken with the weekend of Easter.
“The exponential increase in fares in the Cinque Terre completely contradicts the European and national rules underlying the regulation of public transport,” claims the regional councilor from La Spezia. “What the council did was a hasty operation, which was constructed not only without listening to the territory and consumer associations, but not even consulting theTransport regulatory authority (Art) who should have given his opinion to guarantee public transport. This is why we wrote to Art to understand whether the new tariffs applied respect the coverage of a public service or, otherwise, represent a business, in an area, however, where the train is the means used by 90 percent of the people who need to reach or move between the villages”, said the regional councilor of the Democratic Party.
“We are faced with transport that is not only dedicated to tourists, but also to citizens who for personal reasons have moved their residence elsewhere but who have their family members in one of the villages of the Cinque Terre and to workers who do not reside in Liguria but who have to reach the Cinque Terre every day – explains Natale – With these rates a person not resident in the Region spends at least 20 euros a day to go to work. If during the break or at the end of the day, before returning home, he decides to move to a different village from the one where he works, he must add another 20 euros, for a total of 40 euros per day. An unsustainable figure. The Region has differentiated the tariffs without differentiating the service, it cannot be passed off as a standard tariff (excluding residents), a tariff that calls into question the very idea of a public service. In fact, it is one thing to offer a public service, it is another to make money on that service, which at this point becomes a market one. Here, however, we are on a route used for public service, as required by law and the agreement with Trenitalia, and this means that what is happening requires further investigation by the competent authority to certify whether it is correct or not”.
“We asked Art to answer all these questions and to give his opinion, what the council should have asked and instead didn't do, because there are so many doubts. Public transport is used to go to work, school and family. You can't compare what happens here with other areas. Furthermore, the criterion of proportionality and redistribution of resources is completely missing here. If it is true that some services that are at a loss can be financed with proceeds from services that are in the black it is equally true that this must be based on a criterion of proportionality which is absolutely not applied in the matter concerning the Cinque Terre. In fact, the exponential increase in tariffs brings almost nothing to the territory and actually risks destroying a model known throughout the world”, concludes Natale.
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