The government’s decisions inhibit the development of rural life and people’s economic security. The most obvious example is the abolition of free public transport from January 1 of next year by the Socialists under the pressure of the Reform Party.
When the Center Party stood for all-Estonian free public transport in the platform of the Riigikogu elections in 2015 and implemented it in 2017 under the leadership of then Minister of Economy Kadri Simson, many people had doubts about its reasonableness. The first government of Jüri Ratas found a compromise with the coalition partners, including the Social Democrats, that the provision of free county public transport would be up to local public transport centres.
11 counties seized the opportunity and decided to abolish the ticket fee. In addition, all public transport centers received additional funds to improve their route networks. Even a critical state audit stated in 2021 that the decrease in public transport users stopped with this measure, and the number of passengers could also be increased. Unfortunately, then came the corona crisis and the state of emergency, which reduced the number of all public transport users and their usual frequency of use.
By now, the coalition has come to a common understanding that we have to start asking for money for bus tickets again. Since regional minister Madis Kallas has not formulated a realistic and achievable goal of paid county public transport, the impression remains of the next attempt to regressively fill the state treasury.
People’s socioeconomic status does not ask for age, but the regional minister does when he plans to retain the right to drive for free for drivers up to 19 years old and over 63 years old. Students, pensioners and otherwise hard-working people have to start paying for the ticket, whose annual transport costs can increase to more than 700 euros. Considering that the most affluent part of the population does not travel by bus, this is another blow to the wallet of those who plan their expenses to the nearest euro.
Also, “age privileges” are not uniform nationwide, if students can buy a discount ticket on the Elron train. Therefore, we are not fully moving towards a unified ticket system, which is important to many coalition politicians only in words.
It remains unclear what the applicable purpose of this ticket revenue is. According to the minister, it is possible to collect three to five million euros in this way, which is considerably less than the planned additional financing of public transport of ten million euros. Collecting this amount is incomprehensible, considering that the state still subsidizes the majority of the ticket price and substantial improvements cannot be made in the route network, because the new ticket system also requires investments.
In addition a 1.5-euro bus ticket gives the right to drive for one and a half hours, which, according to the minister, disconnects the price from the dependence on mileage. Paradoxically, traveling longer distances by bus takes more time.
This can be particularly acute for South-Eastern Estonian bus riders, who do not receive all services in the county centers, but can travel to Tartu for free on some buses. For example, the Antsla-Tartu line is extremely popular among passengers, but it takes more than an hour and a half to complete the journey, so it is unclear whether the passenger has to pay three euros more in this case.
Due to the light-heartedness of the government, the wallets of those from whom practically nothing can be taken are taken again. That is why bus drivers are struck with a soul clock.
