As of November 17, children, students, and pensioners will be able to travel free of charge on selected trains in Slovakia. The Government decided on this at its session on Wednesday.
The measure is part of the so-called package of 15 measures aimed at improving the financial, economic, and social situation of people in Slovakia that was drawn up by the Cabinet of Prime Minister Robert Fico. According to Transport, Construction and Regional Development Minister Jan Počiatek, who wrote the draft, the provision will cost €13 million. These expenditures are already factored into the 2015 budget proposal, which was approved by the Government last week.
Children up to the age of 15, students up to 26, and pensioners and people aged 62+ will be able to travel free of charge in second-class carriages on trains run by the state-operated Railway company Zeleznicna spolocnost Slovensko (ZSSK) and on the train service run by commercial carrier RegioJet between Bratislava-Komárno, in western Slovakia. As Minister Počiatek explained, these provisions apply to trains that are subsidised by the state. All unsubsidised trains, such as the InterCity or Eurocity trains which operate in Slovakia won't be subject to this measure. According to Transport Minister Počiatek free trains for these groups of people should help relieve the financial burden from families of university students and help pensioners. However, the opposition party Freedom and Solidarity (SaS) are calling this step of the government a slap in the face of the middle class and all people who work or do business in Slovakia. Chairman of the Freedom and Solidarity party and MEP Richard Sulík called rail travels for free “unsystematic, senseless and unequivocally unjust” and added that the timing of these "benefits” pursues only a single goal: the support for Smer candidates in the municipal elections, which are to be held on November 15th.
