Problems have been allowed to develop in Latvia’s passenger transport system, Transport Minister Atis Švinka (The Progressives) said in an interview with LTV’s “Rīta panorāma” this morning.
The minister explained that the state is in talks with passenger transport companies to address the issues they have pointed out. At the same time, he reminded that contracts with these companies were signed for ten years, include provisions for price indexation, and must be fulfilled. If transport companies are unable to meet their obligations, then the contracts should be terminated and new tenders announced.
Švinka also noted that there are some uncertainties regarding passenger flows, as ticketing system data on tickets sold and passenger counts sometimes show different figures for the number of people carried on certain routes. Therefore, improvements to data collection are planned.
He stressed that he will closely follow the work of the Competition Council,
which has started assessing a submission from the Road Transport Administration pointing to a possible prohibited agreement between transport companies and the abuse of their collective dominant position.
Meanwhile, as part of efforts to further restrict travel to aggressor states, Švinka has pledged not to renew licences for regular passenger transport to Russia — meaning that once the currently issued permits expire, they will not be renewed or extended.
At the same time, he noted that the authorities responsible for Latvia’s security have not currently made a decision to fully close the land border with Russia and Belarus.
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