Discounted fares for students and seniors cost the state almost six billion
The state will reduce the discounted fare to 5.83 billion crowns a year from next year. This year, the Ministry of Transport will receive 3.26 billion from the government’s budget reserve. However, carriers will be able to decide on which routes they will allow discounts, which is related to the limited possibilities of increasing capacity on busy lines.
The resigned Minister of Transport Dan Ťok (for YES) stated at a press conference after the cabinet meeting that he assumes that units of a percentage of connections will run without a discount. In this context, he mentioned, for example, the Prague-Vienna route or regional connections around Prague. “I do not expect carriers to want many connections without a discount. It will allow them better yields and better utilization. I think these will be just a few exceptions,” he added. The Ministry assumes that the decisions will be taken by the carriers in agreement with the customers.
According to the chairman of the ODS parliamentary club, Zbyněk Stanjura, the proposal is unconceptual and the resigned prime minister only buys voters with it. “The government without confidence was evidently inspired in Slovakia, where this measure did not bring the announced positive effects, because people do not want to travel overcrowded trains, so they return to transport by their own car,” he said.
Last week, after the cabinet meeting, Babiš said that the government had found 8.4 billion crowns in this year’s state budget. The cabinet wants to give four billion of these regions to repair 2nd and 3rd class roads, he said. You can use the rest for fare discounts, for example.
The measures approved today are intended to improve public transport for specific groups of passengers, which generally have a higher proportion of low-income people. The Ministry of Transport wants to stimulate the use of public transport by young people.
Compensation for discounts to carriers will be paid by the Ministry of Transport in a similar way, which now ensures payment of current discounts on commercial routes in rail and bus transport. While it now pays compensation of about 240 million crowns, it will now be 3.02 billion CZK for rail passenger transport and 2.81 billion for bus transport. In connection with the discount, the Ministry of Finance will have to adjust its acreage for the list of goods with regulated prices.