Prague city transport no longer free for MPs

Posted on 2008-Mar-24 at 03:30 - Post Comment

The Prague Transport Company (MHD) will stop tolerating deputies' and senators' fare-free travelling by public transport within a week.

Prague Deputy Mayor Marketa Reedova called on the company to resort to such a measure at the beginning of March, pointing to a verdict by the Prague 1 (Prague hotel) District Court that ruled that elected officials do not have a right to use the services of public transport companies free, the Lidove noviny newspaper  writes.

"It is a question of a few days," MHD director Martin Dvorak told the paper when asked when ticket inspectors would start demanding tickets from the lawmakers.

"If they lack them they will be fined as any other passenger," he added.

However, previously Dvorak said that it was necessary to wait for either the abolition or amending the law that recognizes the deputies and senators the right to travel by public transport free of charge.

Prague will thus become the first Czech city where the deputies and senators will lose one of their perks. According to the MHD's estimates, it annually loses 1.3 million crowns through the lawmakers' free travelling.

"The deputies and senators have become an elite group of fare dodgers," Reedova said earlier.

If the deputies and senators want to continue to travel free, there is a possibility of standing up to ticket inspectors, the paper says.