In Sofia, there will be no change in the price of the monthly card for pensioners
Chaos over new public transport travel discounts for students and pensioners. After the Council of Ministers decided from tomorrow that children up to the age of 10 will travel for free, and for pupils, students and pensioners the discounts will be greater, today it was not clear whether all the new tariffs will come into force on time. In Sofia, there will be no change in the price of the monthly card for pensioners, since now the discount is greater than the one proposed by the official office.
The Transport Committee in the Metropolitan City Council met a day before February 1 – the date from which the new fares for traveling with a card in city transport should enter into force. In the education sector, from tomorrow the reduction will be not by 20, but by 40%. Expressed in money, the discounts go from BGN 20 to BGN 15 for students and schoolchildren and from BGN 35 to BGN 15 for doctoral students, explained Zafir Zarkov, the vice-chairman of the Committee on Transport in SOS.
However, for an indefinite period, annual cards for pupils and students will not be sold – until their prices are clarified. And in order for some of the changes to come into effect from tomorrow, a lot of work is to be done in the following hours. The director of the Center for Urban Mobility, Dimitar Dilchev, emphasized that the change in tariffs will be accompanied by a change in price lists, cashier instructions and new cash register software.
Although prices are going down, this change has also raised concerns. “I have complaints from parents of 2 children, for example, who already at the beginning of January bought cards and paid BGN 400. It would not be pleasant for these people to be surprised by the fact that they paid more than others who will subsequently take cards”, said the ombudsman Diana Kovacheva.
In the decree of the Council of Ministers, a bigger discount for pensioners traveling by public transport is included. However, there will be no change for the oldest in Sofia. “The Metropolitan Municipality gives an 80% discount for pensioners over 68, and 50% for those under 68. In both cases, the social discount of the Capital Municipality is larger in volume than the one adopted by a decree of the Council of Ministers”, explained Zarkov.
In Burgas, however, they faced other problems. The municipal carrier released a warning that at the start of the day, only general-type cards will be able to be loaded – without price discounts.
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