The urban passenger transport companies reported that this Tuesday night they will suspend the service from 9:00 p.m. to 5:00 a.m. At the same time, they confirmed that on Wednesday, April 19, there will be a total cessation of activities between 1:00 p.m. and 4:00 p.m.
The protest is led by the Business Chamber of Passenger Auto Transport (CEAP), Business Chamber of Urban Transport of Buenos Aires (CETUBA), Chamber of Transport of the Province of Buenos Aires (CTPBA), Argentine Association of Businessmen of Automotive Transport (AAETA ) and Chamber of United Businessmen of Urban Passenger Transport of Buenos Aires (CEUTUPBA). The businessmen decided to extend the measure due to the non-payment by the Government of the amount owed for tariff compensation.
“Late yesterday, the Government of the Province made a partial payment, so the debt was left at 24,000 million pesos (out of a total of more than 30,000 million), but what was settled is insufficient. With this level of debt, it is impossible to continue circulating, that is why this decision was reached,” explained José Troilo, president of CEAP.
The affected lines range from 1 to 199.
Despite the fact that the Ministry of Transportation assured that the money owed will be deposited in the course of this week, the conflict did not end: “The situation worsened with inflation. We cannot mark prices because the rate is set by the State. So , we have no choice but to rationalize resources by reducing night frequencies and stopping the service in off-peak hours, to affect the population as little as possible,” said Luciano Fusaro, from the Argentine Association of Automotive Transport Entrepreneurs (AAETA).
This Tuesday, the Minister of Transportation, Diego Giuliano, assured the media that they began to pay: “We are obviously making a great effort to update the resources that were planned, because there is a new cost structure that we must compensate. We are this week catching up, we have communicated the situation to the transport cameras, with which we hope to have the necessary cooperation from them so that tomorrow we have a complete normalization of the transport system,” said the official.
The businessmen also stated that the only solution is to completely cancel the debt. And they warned that the problem could worsen next month if they do not have the money to pay salaries at the beginning of the month.
