MILAN – Il general worsening from the quality of public transport service – urban, interurban and regional – seems destined to have at least a positive impact for those who choose to travel by bus, tram, subway or train every day: in fact, unlike what has happened in recent years, this September there will be no adjustment or increase in ticket pricesseason tickets and other travel tickets.
Monday a resolution that addresses this very issue will land on the Regional Council’s table: the updating of public transport fares. But, barring any last-minute surprises, the Lombardy executive will deliberate not to proceed with the retouchingwill establish the impossibility of the adjustment for the year between September 2024 and September 2025.
Il worsening of service it is one of the two factors for which adjustment will not be made, it is not the only one. But it has an impact. In detail, the update in question has been made automatic by regional law and the objective is align rates with inflation. But this alignment must obviously be quantified and weighed from year to year. And it is in this evaluation that the quality of the service offered to subscribers and commuters also falls within and impacts.
With regard to the current situation, inflation has only grown slightly, to a degree considered physiological: the increase photographed by Istat in April 2024 was, in fact, 0.8%. A percentage that in itself would not authorize Municipalities, Region and Local Public Transport Basin Agencies to proceed with a substantial adjustment.
The worsening of the service offered to travellers makes the margin for the increase even more limited: as regards the cities and provinces of Milan, Monza, Lodi and Pavia, 3 out of 4 indicators are negative taken into account to quantify and weigh the possible increase. In this situation, an update could be made in the order of a few, very few, euro cents. But more on paper than in reality. In fact, for travel tickets such as annual passes, the update should also be approximated to 50 euro cents – a threshold that this year would not be reached through simple arithmetic – because by law on non-occasional travel tickets it is not possible to make increases for smaller amounts. Hence the choice which should be sanctioned on Monday by the Regional Council, barring last-minute second thoughts: the Region will give the indication of do not make any rate adjustments at this time. We’ll talk about it again in September 2025. And by then, if the service has improved, even today’s few cents could end up being part of the upgrade. For now, however, the lack of drivers and theeasing of the frequency of races as regards urban and interurban public transport, e delays, cancellations and the various replacement trips established on the regional railway network instead served by Trenord will ensure that commuters do not have to reach for their wallets. This summer there will be no political clashes or passing the buck between institutions on transport.
