Financial Services, Latvia, Markets and Companies, Transport

Kleins, who represents For Riga bloc on the city council and holds Rigas Satiksme shares on behalf of the city council, said that based on all the audits carried out so far and findings provided by independent experts, it is absolutely clear that passengers are significantly overpaying for public transport services in Riga.

"Nobody can claim that the financial losses sustained by Rigas Satiksme have nothing to do with discounts on public transport fares," Kleins said, adding that any decision on granting fare discounts to a social group must follow the city council's decision on a subsidy that would fully compensate for the discount.

Kleins said that it is important to realize that Rigas Satiksme is subsidized not by members of Riga City Council but Riga's taxpayers. Furthermore, being so heavily subsidized, Rigas Satiksme should provide free transport services to all passengers, not just some groups. 

Kleins also believes that Rigas Satiksme should terminate all its unprofitable agreements that are causing losses to the city's residents, such as the "outdated, costly and unprofitable e-ticket system" and disadvantageous insurance agreements. 

The vice-mayor said he had ordered the transport company's lawyers to come up with a solution for "terminating the clearly disadvantageous contract" with Rigas Karti as soon as possible.

As reported, Rigas Satiksme municipal transport company closed the first nine months of 2019 with EUR 143.428 mln in turnover, which is an increase of 21.3% against the same period in 2018, and the company made a EUR 2.92 mln profit, recovering from a loss incurred a year ago, according to the information released by the transport company.

According to the company’s financial statement for the first nine months of 2019, revenue from passenger transportation grew by EUR 3.727 mln on year to EUR 37.501 mln. The revenue increase was achieved on account of minibus services provided by subcontractor Rigas Mikroautobusu Satiksme (RMS).

Fully owned by Riga City Council, Rigas Satiksme provides bus, tram and trolleybus services to passengers in Riga.