Ouch! Parking & Public Transport Tickets in Prague May Rise

Prague city officials are thinking about raising prices for both parking and public transportation. This is part of a bigger plan to deal with traffic jams and invest in the city’s transportation system.

Adam Scheinherr (Praha Sobě), said it’s important to update parking fees as they haven’t changed in years. “If we raise prices by 3-5%, it might free up 3-5% of parking spaces,” Scheinherr explained.

He added that the extra money wouldn’t just help traffic flow better, it would also be put back into fixing roads and improving public transportation.

Jiří Pospíšil (TOP 09), agrees that something needs to be done about the worsening traffic situation. However, he stressed that any changes to parking fees should favor residents over visitors, especially those coming for fun.

Pospíšil suggested that visitors who aren’t residents use park-and-ride facilities and public transport to get to the city center. This would reduce the number of cars in Prague.

Discussions also involve public transport fares, which haven’t kept up with rising costs like inflation. Scheinherr pointed out that annual public transport tickets are actually cheaper now than they were twenty years ago, even though energy costs and employee salaries have gone up.

Without adjustments, the city would need to spend more money from its budget. Currently, the city pays for a whopping 86% of the transport budget. Pospíšil and his colleagues want to reduce this subsidy to 75% to make the system sustainable in the long run.

Zdeněk Hřib, Prague’s Deputy Mayor for Transport acknowledged the financial challenges.

“Running a city is a team effort,” he said, underlining the importance of working together within the coalition government. He assured residents that any fare increases would be thought about carefully to minimize the impact, especially given the current economic pressures.

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