The Yucatán Transportation Agency (ATY) maintains its position of not paying part of the 45-day debt owed for work carried out by the concessionaires’ units operating on the Circuito Metropolitano route.
The accumulated debt amounts to just over $189 million pesos, and although the concessionaires had hoped that the ATY or the state government would make a partial payment in these days so they could continue operating the public transportation service, as of last Wednesday, nothing had been paid.
The difficult relationship between ATY and state government authorities and the concessionaires became more than evident a few days ago, when the government agency rejected the assistance offered by the bus operators to prevent disruptions to the service and users.
The concessionaires offered their older buses for a limited period to avoid leaving this route without service, but the ATY thanked them and made adjustments across all routes to maintain the fleet of Va y Ven buses.
What the ATY did was remove buses from other routes with low occupancy during times when doing so would not affect their service.
In this way, Circuito Metropolitano remains in operation with its regular fleet, and the withdrawal of Va y Ven buses belonging to the concessionaires operating the route is not noticeable.
Although for now there is an improvised and very fragile solution, the concessionaires are already considering withdrawing their buses from other routes throughout the city, always citing the same reason: they do not have enough money to purchase fuel, pay operators and administrative staff, or maintain the units.
If the concessionaires decide to reduce the number of Va y Ven buses across all routes in Mérida, an even greater crisis in public transportation appears likely.
Without money
The withdrawal of buses assigned to the Circuito Metropolitano route is because the concessionaires claim that without payment of part or all of the debt, they cannot maintain the units, since their credit with gas stations has run out or they cannot perform maintenance or purchase spare parts.
The ATY maintains that “there is no money” to pay the debt, even though providing public transportation service is an obligation.
Source: yucatan
