New blow to the price of tickets for local public transport. While on the one hand there has been discussion for months to try to imitate the German and Spanish models, thus trying to lower costs and, where possible, eliminate them, LPT is instead having to face the opposite problem, with price increases which will force an increase of tickets immediately after the Christmas holidays in all major cities. From Milan to Naples, there will or have already been price increases: in the shadow of the Duomo 20 cents from January, in Rome 50 cents from August 2023, on the slopes of Vesuvius 10 cents for 4 months already. In Genoa then mayor Bucci saw the free transport project frozen, complete with the resignation of the head of the local company.
The crisis that has hit the sector, with lockdown, pandemic but also smart working and a return to private vehicles have undermined certainties and long-term plans, with public transport companies affected by the need to convert fleets more quickly. “We are going into a crisis, the transport companies have no capital to hold on”, explained Antonio Decaro, mayor of Bari and president of Anci, the association of Municipalities. “And if an investee company closes in the red, it sends the mayors’ financial statements into a crisis, due to a provision of the Madia decree that we ask to neutralize. A nonsense to increase tickets now that we were moving towards zero cost. But what alternatives do we have? In Bari we changed the fleet of buses, from diesel to methane gas, thanks to the ecological conversion financed by the incentives of the various governments: now they are a ball and chain with gas price increases.”
What the mayors are calling for is more support from the government, with the allocated funds partially covering the problems that the dedicated companies are facing in individual municipalities. He explains it the mayor of Milan Beppe Salawho will meet some of his counterparts to join in an appeal to the Executive: “Tomorrow I will see the mayors of Rome and Naples, I know that Turin too is having difficulty closing its accounts. Public transport solves pollution, but it needs to be funded more by the government”.
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