Amid rising costs, request for raising public transport fares in İstanbul rejected

_{* Photo: Anadolu Agency (AA)}

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Amid increasing costs, the İstanbul Metropolitan Municipality (IMM) Transport Coordination Center (UKOME) convened to discuss the request for raising the public transport fares yesterday (March 23).

Chaired by Can Akın Çağlar, the General Secretary of the opposition-led İMM, the meeting has not ended in a decision to raise the fares. The request was jointly brought to the agenda of the UKOME meeting by the İMM and the public transport business owners in İstanbul.

The request was to raise the fares paid to the İstanbul Electric Tramway and Tunnel Establishments (İETT), Metro İstanbul, Cityline Ferries, minibuses, taxis and shared taxis by 50 percent and shuttle fares by 40 percent. Speaking about the proposal, Çağlar said that they were discussing an issue where the transport business owners and consumers are right due to the economic crisis and the war which have shaken Turkey.

He underlined that the İstanbul Metropolitan Municipality (İMM) needs a subsidy of 15 billion lira so that the transportation will not be interrupted, adding that "while the İETT was subsidized with 10 million lira a day in the new year, this amount has increased to 27 million lira now".

"We agree that public services should not seek profits. However, in order to ensure sustainability of these services, a raise in fares is necessary," Çağlar indicated further, noting that both the public transport business owners and the İMM institutions have been expecting this.

'Electricity bills over 70 million lira'

Taking the floor afterwards, Metro İstanbul Director General Özgür Soy said that while the institution received an electricity bill of 19 million lira in January 2021, this amount increased to 63 million lira in February 2022 and to over 70 million lira in March 2022. "With these costs, it is impossible to sustain public transportation in İstanbul," he added further.

Taxi owners demanded a raise as well

Eyüp Aksu, the Chair of the İstanbul Chamber of Taxi Owners, also said that "their request for a fare raise has become a necessity".

According to Aksu, "The business owners have been aggrieved, some vehicles do not work and some drivers stop working". He noted that 60 percent of the money earned by taxis in İstanbul are paid for fuel costs.

Separate requests for İMM, private sector

Representative of the Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure, Serdar Yücel, requested that separate requests for a fare raise be made for the private sector and for the İstanbul Metropolitan Municipality.

Offering a 30-percent raise for the fuel differential, he recalled that they filed a lawsuit against the 36-percent increase in the full fare ticket prices made in December and demanded that the court ruling be awaited before the fares are raised further in the public transport of the city.

Following the vote taken at the UKOME, the request for raising the public transport fares in İstanbul was rejected by a majority of votes.

It was increased by 36 percent in December

The UKOME met on December 24, 2021 and raised the public transport fares of taxis, shared taxis and buses by 36 percent and shuttles by 27 percent. Following this raise, the fares are as follows:

Public transport:

Taxi fares:

(HA/SD)