Türkiye’s most populated city Istanbul, where mass transportation vehicles are widely used in the face of frustrating traffic, again raised fees for mass transit passes. The Transportation Coordination Center (UKOME) of the city’s municipality announced a 29.1% rise on Tuesday in the fees.
Starting on Jan.1, commuters will pay TL 9.9 instead of TL 7.6 for one pass while students will be charged TL 4.83. The city imposed this year’s first raise in mass transit fees in February, implementing hikes up to 92% for card purchases. In April, the price to board mass transit vehicles was raised to TL 7.67 from TL 5.48.
Taxi fares were also increased in the “extraordinary” meeting of UKOME, from TL 6.3 per kilometer to TL 8.5. The minimum taxi fare for shorter distances was determined as TL 40, with a 42% rise. Similarly, fees for minibuses, a popular means of mass transportation, was increased to TL 7 from TL 5.2. UKOME also jacked up the price for school buses by nearly 20%.
Serdar Yücel, a representative of the Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure, was among members of the center which supervises transportation fees, who opposed the decision. Yücel said it was the local administration’s duty to cover the costs of mass transportation and voiced concerns that the rise in prices would “push people to drive instead of taking mass transit and this in turn would worsen the traffic.” He called upon the municipality to subsidize mass transportation. In response, the municipality’s Deputy Secretary General Buğra Gökçe said they were already subsidizing mass transportation. Gökçe cited inflation for the rise in prices.
