The mayor’s office introduced on Saturday new prices that replaced the uniform bus and minibus fees of 100 drams (25 U.S. cents) per ride and trolleybus fares set at 50 drams with a complex tariff system involving electronic payments for season tickets.
Commuters now have the option of paying 9,000 drams ($22) per month, 24,000 drams per quarter and 90,000 drams per annum for an unlimited number of bus, trolleybus or metro rides. More importantly, a ticket valid for 180 minutes cost around 300 drams.
The two opposition groups represented in the city council kept calling on citizens to continue paying 100 drams even after Avinian made a major concession on February 28, introducing a new, one-ride ticket worth 150 drams.
An RFE/RL correspondent witnessed on Monday citizens both going along with the higher fees and defying them. None of the bus or trolleybus drivers rebuked or tried to evict commuters that stuck to the older price that had been in place for decades. But the drivers also refused to accept 100-dram coins offered by them, citing new municipal rules.
The boycott seemed widespread on trolleybuses where the price of a single-ride ticket has been raised threefold.
“If your salary is small, this [price hike] is a big burden on your budget,” one commuter told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service.
Representatives of the two opposition groups represented in the city council continued to actively encourage the boycott, boarding buses, trolleybuses and metro trains and touring bus stops for that purpose. One of their leaders, Andranik Tevanian, said the opposition can still force the municipal administration to reverse the price hike.
Avinian again ruled out such a possibility, however. He claimed that the opposition has failed to cause a “collapse” of the municipal transport system.
The mayor at the same time indicated that the boycott is having serious financial consequences for the system. He did not say how the authorities could try to end the opposition campaign.
Other municipality officials warned earlier that citizens refusing to pay the new fares will face heavy fines. Opposition representatives countered that such penalties would be illegal.
Avinian and his associates representing the ruling Civil Contract party have said all along that the higher fares are needed for cutting the transport network’s losses and buying new buses for it. Their political opponents maintain that the mayor’s office has enough funds to subsidize the network without resorting to the unpopular measure.