Subway: State and city government fight over fare price.

Romulo Faro - Bahia 247

As Bahia 247 has been reporting almost exhaustively in recent days, the impasse between the state government and the Salvador City Hall regarding a settlement of accounts on the subway is far from over.

Despite being under construction for 14 years, it's worth remembering that the dispute between the two spheres of the Executive Branch isn't about putting the transportation system into operation, but only about finalizing the concession from the municipality to the state, which promises to integrate the 'short pants' metro with the Paralela line, announced by Governor Jaques Wagner to solve the problems of the Bahian capital, but which hasn't even been put out to tender yet.

The "short pants" line is also known as Line 1, which will be 12 kilometers long, running from Lapa Station to Pirajá Station, but currently only has six kilometers "ready," up to the North Access (Rótula do Abacaxi), and will only operate when the Paralela line is completed. This is the condition imposed by Governor Jaques Wagner to take over the project, since the city government has already admitted it is unable to put it into operation.

Finally, another chapter in the "Mexican soap opera," as the head of the State's Civil House and pre-candidate for governor from the PT party, Rui Costa, said today.

After the municipal secretary of Transportation and Housing of Salvador, José Carlos Aleluia, said that the obstacle to finalizing the concession for the Government of Bahia was the fact that it proposed increasing bus fares, Rui went to Tudo FM radio this morning to say that talks with the city hall regarding the fare for buses that will feed into the metro stations and the implementation of the single ticket system are over.

"In other cities, it took a long time to implement the integration system, which would further hinder and delay the start of subway construction. We want to build the subway and, within a period of five years, another governor and another mayor will negotiate these costs, but with the subway already operational."

In a press release last night, Rui Costa said that it is the city government that wants to increase the bus fare.

According to a statement from the State Secretariat of Communication (Secom), the city hall's proposal would set the bus fare at R$ 1,40, "and adding the metro fare to the population's budget makes the system unviable." The state government's proposal suggests a fare of R$ 0,95 for feeder buses.

"It's a false controversy to claim that bus users will subsidize the subway. On the contrary, the fare will be subsidized by the government, and people will have the cheapest option, saving more than R$ 0,50 per trip," says Rui Costa.

While the state and municipality fight over the fare for a transportation model that doesn't even exist yet, the population has been waiting for 14 years for the six-kilometer subway line that has already consumed more than R$ 1 billion of public money.