TIRANA, Dec. 23 – Urban public transport companies in Tirana have threatened with a strike starting January 1, 2016 unless the municipality gives a solution to their continuous request for an increase in bus fares.
Speaking after failed negotiations with municipality officials on Wednesday, representatives of the public transport association threatened they will paralyze public transport, claiming they cannot afford continuing to provide the service at the current rates which is leading them to bankruptcy.
Claiming deteriorating financial situation, the Association of Urban Transport in Tirana has continuously called during the past couple of years for an increase of the bus fares to 70 lek (€0.5), up from lek 30 (€0.21) currently.
“There was no solution today. On January 1 we will suspend the service. There will be no public transport. We will give up and let banks take over the vehicles,” a representative of the association told reporters after meeting with municipality officials.
Deputy Tirana Mayor Arber Mazniku insisted the municipality will not approve a hike in bus fair, but assured it will work on an alternative solution that will make possible the continuation of the service.
“We are working in parallel with transport operators, banks and oil companies where they have accumulated unpaid bills in order to find a solution. At this moment we are not discussing an increase in the bus fare but alternative solutions,” said Mazniku.
Tirana Mayor Erion Veliaj had earlier described the operators’ request to more than double bus fares as blackmail and absurd.
“Their service does not justify a price hike. Tirana is not ready to afford this price. Bus fares will never increase to 70 lek as long as I am in office as Tirana mayor,” said Veliaj.
Representatives of the 10 city public transport companies operating in Tirana claim they are on the brink of bankruptcy, facing rising difficulty to pay off loans and salaries to their staff.
“There are 1,500 employees making a living with this job and we haven’t been able to pay them for the past 4 to 5 months,” they said.
Last February, Tirana was paralyzed by a 24-hour strike staged by city public transport operators, demanding the same amount of increase in bus fares.
Irritated public transport users say they couldn’t afford even a 10 lek (€0.07) increase and that they were dissatisfied with the service offered by the private operators.
The Urban Transport Association had earlier requested that transport operators must be allowed to increase their bus fares or government should lift the excise duty and circulation taxes on fuel, currently at 64/lek litres (€0.45) which makes Albania’s fuel prices one of Europe’s highest.
While bus fares may be low compared to other regional countries, it must be noted that Albania has one of Europe’s lowest GDP per capita at only €3,440.
