Tickets, from 1 January Single Companies Ticket into Force, but Unicocampania is not Going to Disappear

Statements made by Regional Minister for Transport of Campania Sergio Vetrella: "Differently from what local press reported, the resolution that established the entry into force from 1 January of new tickets valid only on single companies means does not delete the unified fare “Unicocampania”, that remains unchanged and even offers a wider range of tickets for users, as required by transport companies and associations of commuters.”

Mr. Vetrella continued: “New tickets, with a discount compared with the unified fares, meet the needs of those citizens who usually travel by several means, but all belonging to the same company. Those citizens had no interest in paying more to obtain advantages, namely a unified fare to use two or more buses or trains from different companies, they were not benefiting from. They were basically paying for a service they did not use! Moreover, these new tickets will benefit the companies that will collect the entire earnings; the evasion fight will be also fostered, since the companies themselves will have a further interest in making users pay for these tickets and hence, they will make sure that users pay.”

The Regional Minister added: “Thus, statements released by the Director of the Unicocampania Consortium and by some political representatives of the opposition, according to which this resolution sets the end of the unified ticket and that these new tickets will lead to the collapse of the companies, are completely groundless. These statements are really serious and specious, and above all, they are not suitable for the exclusive technical role the Director should play, since they were released during a meeting attended by several political representatives, and thus, with only fallacious reasons, that are even deceptive for citizens. After all, it is enough to just read the text of the resolution that sets forth these new tickets: it will be available on my website (www.sergiovetrella.it) for the sake of completeness”.

Mr. Vetrella continued: “The Director should rather explain why over ten years of centre-left administration, the management of the Consortium created an annual 13 million and a half € abyss, completely to the expense of the Regione, and thus of Campania citizens; in fact, many companies threaten to abandon the Consortium. This truly seems to be another attempt to remove attention from those who are really accountable for the transport crisis; it is an outburst of somebody who has not realized yet that waste and inefficiency time is over. That management carried on for years and obliged us to deal with a huge abyss in the financial statements of the regional transport companies, with serious effects on the services rendered to citizens and on workers, too. Everything we have been experiencing for months, namely cancelled journeys, payment delays for workers, lack of liquidity for companies, are the consequences, and I am sorry to feel obliged to repeat it again, of the senseless policy of a system that included the Consortium Unicocampania, that along with the necessary company recovery and revamp, must be definitely reformed, although the unified fare has to be guaranteed".