Tough stance taken by CGIL Abruzzo against the increase in bus fares in the Chieti-Pescara metropolitan area
The opposition leader in the Regional Council, Luciano D’Amico, also spoke critically on the issue.
Yesterday, on the proposal of regional councilor Umberto D’Annuntiis, the adjustment to the inflation rate of local public transport fares by road was approved, with specific reference to urban, suburban and interurban services and to the Unico fare applied in the Chieti-Pescara metropolitan area. In a note sent today, councilor D’Annuntiis explains that the approved measure follows “the adjustment to the inflation rate” and that “the last update dates back to August 25, 2016”.
Below is the critical note signed by Carmine Ranieri, general secretary of Cgil Abruzzo Molise; Franco Rolandi, regional secretary of Cgil Abruzzo Molise; Aurelio Di Eugenio, general secretary of Filt Cgil Abruzzo Molise
“After the 35% increases on rail transport, it is now the turn of road transport. Trying more simply to interpret this meager statement and for which only 24 hours later the councilor D’Annuntiis himself clarified what the actual scope of the provision is, what the timeframe of the tariff increases is and above all what the extent of the increases in percentage terms, it was revealed what had seemed rather obvious to most, namely that there will be a further blow on Abruzzo citizens who use a public service.
A measure that affects public transport users who are notoriously made up of low-income citizens, pensioners and students and which adds to the 10 years of constant increases in rail transport prices that the Marsilio Council itself agreed with Trenitalia, providing for in the Service Contract an increase in the cost of tickets which will be 15% in 2025 and then a further 5% every two years until the end of the service contract, i.e. 2033. Which means for Abruzzo commuters who choose to travel by train, an overall increase of 35% compared to the current cost of the ticket or season ticket purchased.
Increases that really feel like a joke if we think of the continuous appeals addressed to citizens to favor and use public transport more which is still the best option for reducing air pollution. Not to mention the lack of attention that both regional politics and transport companies themselves reserve for the widespread fare evasion generated by those traveling without a ticket.
It is a measure that truly outrages us, especially if we remember the equally indignant reactions of those who govern the Region today and who from the opposition benches cried scandal when it was others who increased the tariffs”.
THE FOUR PROPOSALS OF THE CGIL AND THE FILT
“However, wanting to put political exploitation aside, the CGIL and the Filt try to formulate the following constructive proposals capable of overcoming the deleterious tariff increases decided by the Regional Government:
1. The tariff increases foreseen in the public transport sector (road and iron) should be eliminated by using the “scandalous perks” distributed by the Regional Government, without even providing for the activation of a public tender, through the Omnibus amendment at the end of the year and beyond two thousand beneficiaries for a total of 18 million euros;
2. Urgent action should be taken by the national government and the Minister of Infrastructure and Transport Matteo Salvini so that the State, which until proven otherwise still finances local public transport (since differentiated autonomy has not yet become operational), urgently adjusts the planned National Transport Fund to the inflation rate, with which resources for local transport are distributed to the ordinary statute regions. The fund provides just over 5 billion euros for 2024 (and at least 6 billion would be needed to adequately finance the sector) and of these resources just 2.69%, corresponding to just over 138 million euros, end up in Abruzzo. Insufficient resources for a Region where internal areas and depopulation persist.
3. The benefits of the single ticket should be extended on a regional basis, as the Regional Council has undertaken to do with the various resolutions approved at the end of the previous legislature, putting an end to an absurd discrimination between territories and citizens of Abruzzo which has been going on since 2004 and which causes disadvantages for citizens of internal areas who pay taxes like other Abruzzo residents.
4. Like other regional entities, tariff concessions and even free public transport are introduced for low-income citizens and in general for all students who attend schools in Abruzzo”.
The note from the leader of the minority in the Regional Council, Luciano D’Amico, is also along the same critical line.
“With one hand, the cost of tickets for citizens on public transport is increased by about 20%, with the other, funds are allocated indiscriminately for sporting events, concerts and the purchase of unspecified D’Annunzio correspondence to be donated to the Municipality of Pescara. The increase in transport costs, approved yesterday by the Council of
centre-right, will have an amount estimated between 4 and 5 million euros per year and will be paid mainly by those citizens,
students, the elderly and commuters, who use public transport the most and have been hit by inflation that has already significantly eroded their purchasing power. The Abruzzo Region, instead of providing support to the weakest segments of the regional population, limits their right to mobility, compresses their right to health, requiring cuts and recovery plans from the ASL, does not provide any support to the productive categories including, for example, the winemakers affected by the tragedy of downy mildew.It is therefore evident that the funds deriving from the increase in ticket prices, which will flow into the coffers of the Region, will not
they will certainly be used to strengthen transport, which presents notable critical issues in Abruzzo, but they will cover, for example, the increase from 250 to 500 thousand euros for the Night of the Snakes; the purchase of an unspecified D’Annunzio library for the Municipality of Pescara (for which there is no appraisal and whose contents we do not know) or the transfer of Alpine bivouacs to high altitudes”.
