The protests against higher bus fares which saw commuters traveling on public transport without paying the fare have resulted in significant financial losses, according to Yerevan City Hall. 

Yerevan Mayor Tigran Avinyan’s spokesperson, Hayk Kostanyan, said at a press conference on June 3 that as a result of the revenue drop the city won’t be able to purchase at least 30 of the 45 new trolleybuses it had pledged to buy.

Earlier this year, the city replaced the 100-dram bus and minibus fees per ride and 50-dram trolleybus fares at with an electronic tariff system offering commuters to buy season tickets. Some protesters started using the public transport system without paying the tariff as a sign of boycott, while City Hall lacked enforcement measures.

“Since February, we’ve had a bizarre and to some extent out-of-control situation in the public transport due to the efforts of our opposition colleagues, which led to a point where during the past five months City Hall, that is the Yerevan Bus, the Metro and the Electric Bus municipal agencies collected just over 6 billion 30 million drams in total,” Kostanyan said, adding that the underperformance will have its consequences: City Hall had announced plans to purchase 45 new trolleybuses to upgrade its fleet. 

“During these campaigns, when people were being urged to not pay, we’ve had a situation where we won’t be able to buy at least 30 out of these 45, because we don’t have that money due to the less revenue,” the spokesperson said.

Furthermore, he didn’t rule out the possibility of failing to buy the remaining 15 trolleybuses if the revenue collection from public transport remains the same. 

“There are people who are exploiting the situation and not paying at all, and this has held to some problems in terms of the budget,” Kostanyan said.

Setting fines for fare evasion is still on the agenda at City Hall, but the measure must be approved in parliament. 

Published by Armenpress, original at https://armenpress.am/en/article/1221256