Closed Meeting on Fare Increase: What Does the CP Faction Think?

In the National Assembly yesterday, Yerevan's Deputy Mayor Suren Grigoryan met with members of the CP faction to discuss the issue of increasing transport fares. Although the entire faction did not attend the closed meeting, around two dozen deputies were present. Despite the Deputy Mayor's explanation that the maintenance of new buses is expensive and that this justifies the fare increase, the CP members unanimously protested against the increase, especially given that it would be nearly double.

This was reported by the newspaper "Hraparak". They urged the Deputy Mayor not to pursue such measures, especially since elections are approaching and this decision will directly impact their voter's wallets, potentially placing the CP in a difficult position ahead of the elections. The only exception was Tigran Parsilyan, who suggested that there should be no fear of such reforms, as people would eventually adapt.

It is possibly related to this situation that during yesterday's council meeting, it was announced that the city administration would reconsider the proposal to increase fares. According to the proposal, the cost of a unified monthly ticket would be 11,000 drams. It is worth noting that this proposal was included in last week's council session, but the discussion was postponed due to public outcry. Apparently, the council will make some concessions since the initial proposal would have more than doubled the fare.