📋 Tender Overview
On Friday, September 4, the Ministry of Transport submitted a request for the additional 9.8 million EUR required for the continuity of public transport services. Funding is necessary to ensure the fulfillment of existing public transport service order contracts, to maintain the network of routes of regional importance in the scope of 2025 and to ensure the continuity of public transport services until the end of 2026. The Minister of Transport Rihards Kozlovskis states that the government has reached an agreement on the allocation of this funding from funds for unforeseen cases. Minister of Transport Rihards Kozlovskis: For me, as Minister of Industry, it is primarily important that public transport is provided to citizens in all regions of Latvia. When I took office at the end of May this year, it was clear that an additional EUR 9.8 million would be needed this autumn so that the daily life of our citizens would not be affected by canceled public transport flights. After negotiations with government partners, we have agreed that funding will be allocated from the funds for unforeseen cases. The Minister states that he has started negotiations with the Ministry of Finance and partners also for the provision of public transport service in the future. It is clear that with a one-time allocation of additional funding, it is not possible to eliminate the existing structural financing problems in the public transport system. They must be solved more deeply. Therefore, the Ministry, in cooperation with the Directorate of Road Transport, has carried out an evaluation, which foresees that in the long term it is necessary to continue to improve the public transport financing model by regularly evaluating the route network, passenger flows, service efficiency and compensation calculation principles, in order to ensure the most efficient and effective use of state budget funds, says Minister of Transport R. Kozlovskis. The minister also states that public transport carriers will also have to focus on cooperation, as the carriers themselves will also have to make changes. For example, the implementation of digitization solutions, which would provide for the introduction of a unified cash register system, self-service systems, passenger registration, etc. In order to ensure the stable operation and development of the public transport system, the basic funding of the state budget should be maintained at 93.78 million. in the amount of EUR, while providing additional funding of 15 million. EUR per year. The mentioned increase in funding is related to the implementation of specific efficiency measures, including the optimization of the route network, the development of demand-based transport, the implementation of digitization solutions and the gradual increase of own revenues. The Ministry of Transport and the Motor Transport Directorate continue the dialogue with the industry. By implementing targeted solutions and compensatory measures, it is possible to reach a fiscally neutral level of state budget expenditures within three to four years, in which the total required level of state budget funding would be 109 million. EUR per year.
