The bus lines from 200 onwards, which only circulate in the municipalities of Greater Buenos Aires (GBA) and that they do not enter the City, They will go on strike for 24 hours this Thursday, January 16, 2025demanding payment of some $39,000 million in subsidies owed to them by the province of Buenos Aires.
The bus stoppage will affect millions of users of the Conurbano and it is the decision of the companies, which do not have sufficient funds to meet their costs: the salaries of the drivers, the diesel and the maintenance of the units.
Bus stoppage: which lines are not working this Thursday, January 16
The companies that provide the service warn that without rate increases or subsidies it will be impossible to meet the parity demands that the Unión Tranviarios Automotor (UTA) union, which represents the drivers, wants, while the quality of the service is degrading.
In a meeting held on Monday before the authorities of the Ministry of Labor, the companies warned that they are facing “an obvious case of ‘non-attributable force majeure, which does not allow salary and non-salary obligations to be met in a timely mannerdue to failure to determine the real costs of the activity”.
“Companies are on a slide that takes them to a failing state and, as the first symptom, many They can no longer afford to pay salaries for December 2024 due to the exclusive responsibility of the officials of the different transportation jurisdictions in the AMBAwhile some are supporting a financial deficit due to delays in the payment of economic compensation by the provincial authorities,” they explained.
Meanwhile, the UTA warned: “If this way continues, There will be no choice but to take measures to avoid further harm to workers and their livelihood. “We cannot allow workers’ salaries to be the variable for the State to maintain ridiculous rates at 35% of what it costs in the rest of the country.”
The numbers of the buses, reasons for their crisis
According to the Argentine Association of Automotive Transport Entrepreneurs (AAETA), the chamber managed by the Metropol group – the second most important in the Buenos Aires Metropolitan Area (AMBA), behind DOTA -, in November the “real” cost of the system of groups was $294,395.1 millionequivalent to $ 1.220,27 without Value Added Tax (VAT) for each ticket or $ 1.348,40 with a 10.5% VAT rate.
The Ministry of Transportation recognizes $221,575.83 million per month, between rates –$ 371,13 minimum, although the average is lower due to the discounts when integrating several trips with the Single Electronic Ticket System (SUBE) – and the subsidies, which add up in total $ 863.
The remaining $72,819.27 million monthly or $ 357,27 per ticket are “to the loss of companies”which translates into a lower quality of service, discontinuity of frequencies, loss of security and a decrease in the renewal of units, which makes them progressively more dangerous.
The subsidies are distributed by the Nation, the City and the province of Buenos Aires so that passengers do not pay the real cost of operating the buses, which It would be around 1 dollar and would mean an initial increase in inflationa strong blow to the pocket (with political effects) and a disincentive to use public transport, which is more efficient in environmental terms than cars.
According to AAETA data, The AMBA has the cheapest bus fares in the country, with the exception of La Rioja ($ 300), where the Peronist governor Ricardo Quintela wants to position himself as a figure of the Justicialist Party (PJ) for the 2027 elections.
By way of comparison, in the Buenos Aires town of Pinamar the ticket is $ 2.105; in San Carlos de Bariloche, Río Negro, to $ 1.275; in Santa Fe, Rosario and Córdoba, $ 1.200; and in Mar del Plata, $ 1.180.
The AMBA bus system is made up of some 153 companies that have 387 active lines with a fleet of 18,144 cars and 53,700 drivers that move about 9,800,000 passengers per business day or about 242.7 million each month.