Judicial setback for transportation fare hike: public hearing suspended

The federal court of Lomas Zamora granted the request made by the mayor of Esteban Echeverría, Fernando Gray, to suspend the public hearing for the increase in bus and train transport fares. The ruling, which bears the number 16,986, enables the judicial fair for the precautionary measure requested to be treated in an electronically signed digital document, and to carry out the entire procedural act linked to the lawsuit. The public hearing had been convened by the Ministry of Transportation, which depends on the Ministry of Infrastructure of the Nation, in order to deal with the increases in the fare table of trains and buses. Resolution 1/2024 of the Ministry of Transportation, published on Friday, January 19, established a period of three administrative working days for interested persons to submit their opinions and proposals through the agency’s website. Gray said that “it is unbelievable that they have turned the public hearing of the transportation increase into a web form in which you make a comment of up to 5,000 characters and the participation ends,” adding that, “in this way, they nullify any instance of exchange and debate, and turn the audience into a social media post.” It is not possible to face a process that will affect the income of millions of families behind the backs of the citizens,” said the mayor, who was also “very concerned about the fare scheme proposed by the national government,” since he argued that “it increases the cost of bus tickets by 251 percent and trains from 169 to 247, according to the line.” Grey concluded by lamenting that “every morning, thousands of residents of our district commute to their jobs and in many cases take two or three public transports”, and pointed out: “These increases, together with those announced for electricity and gas, will only make life more difficult for workers”. The Fair Chamber of the Chamber in Contentious Administrative Matters had previously confirmed the rejection of a proposal by the mayor of the Buenos Aires municipality of Esteban Echeverría to curb gas increases. Chamber members Sergio Fernandez and Carlos Grecco dismissed Gray’s request to enable the judicial fair and deal with an amparo action that sought, first, the suspension of the process to increase the rates and, then, the results of the public hearing that was held between January 8 and 9. It is not possible to infer, much less to consider it verified, that the course of the fair could frustrate the protection of the rights whose protection it seeks,” the judges replied. Gray, they added, “failed to prove that the delay imposed by the judicial recess could entail a certain and imminent risk of frustration of rights.”

Original source in Spanish