Penza, 28 April 2012. PenzaNews. Members of the Penza public expressed outrage about the forthcoming fare increase in the municipal public transport, scheduled for April 30.

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Oleg Sharipkov, Executive Director of the “Civil Union” shared his view on the problem with news agency PenzaNews and stated that signed by the head of city administration resolution is ungrounded.

“Firstly, the planned price increase is too strong. I would agree with the increase, for example, by 10%, as happens from time to time with the prices of utility services, electricity and fuel. But such a sharp increase now will only strengthen social tensions. People already have many questions,” Oleg Sharipkov noted.

Moreover, he reminded that the decision of the city authorities of one of the regions to set different transport fares for cash and cashless payments was considered unlawful several years ago.

“I think that the prosecutor’s office will appeal it. And secondly, we seem to have different carriers, but the prices are the same. What is it — a collusion? Or, in fact, the carriers are different, and the owner is the same?” the official wondered.

Acoording to the words of Tatyana Bogdanova, the head the NGO “Social Youth Service,” due to the increase of transport fare, payment for transportation services for her family will increase threefold on the upcoming Monday.

“I am sure that this solution of the head of administration will take many residents by surprise and cause their quite understandable dissatisfaction. Moreover, earlier that same mayor Roman Chernov assured us that no increase in the near future is expected,” Tatyana Bogdanova said.

The businessman Anton Kupryushin called the decision of the city administration unfair.

“I think they are scamps! I can only talk emotionally about it. This is unfair. And the situation is abnormal when the travel cost for non-cash is lower. Given the economy, payments with cash, on the contrary, should be cheaper,” said the businessman.

Darya Laiko, Chairman of the Association of Penza “Civil Control” explained that the social organization had not specialized in this issue before, however, she expressed the opinion that before making such decisions, the city authorities had to give a voice to residents.

“Before making this decision, it was necessary to gather people and provide them with some calculations for that the public had an idea of how practicable it is. And if this is really something they can argue, then we could talk about some positive assessments,” Darya Laiko said.

As news agency PenzaNews previously reported, tariffs for passengers and baggage transportation in the municipal city transport of Penza will be among the highest in the Volga Federal District from April 30.

In case of non-cash payment with contactless microprocessor cards “Preferential transport card of Penza resident” or “Transportation card of Penza resident” the fare on buses of large capacity and trolleybuses will be 13 rubles, in case of cash payment it will be 16 rubles.

According to official data, the transport fare is higher in Kazan — 17.20 rubles. In Samara it is 15 rubles — 1 ruble less than it is going to be in Penza. In 12 regions, prices range from 8 to 15 rubles. The lowest bus fare is in Saratov and Orenburg — 10 rubles, trolleybus fare is the lowest in Orenburg — 8 rubles.

Currently, the cost of a bus trip in Penza is 11 rubles, a trolleybus trip costs 10 rubles.