National, City governments sign Subway handover

The National Government and the BA City administration finally came to an agreement and signed the handover for the City’s Subway and Tram transport systems, at the Economy Ministry.

Macri’s government will take responsibility of “supervising and controlling the entire subway network including the Tram, and will have control of the service’s tariffs,” it informed, where meanwhile the National Government promises to pay 50 percent of the subsidies for the period of a year.

The transfer was signed by Vice-President Amado Boudou, National Transport Secretary Juan Pablo Schiavi, and Planning Minister Julio De Vido; and BA City Mayor Mauricio Macri.

During an afterwards press conference, Boudou indicated that "a major step has been taken today," and assured "we've applied the instructions given by the President (Cristina Fernández de Kirchner) without delays or tricks."

Meanwhile, Schiavi confirmed the government's commitment to "pay 50 percent of the subsidies for the next 12 months."

"The City is in charge of the tariffs, and if the price of the ticket is increased, then what the State and the City gains from the subsidies' cut will be destined to infrastructural works," Schiavi added.

The handover unleashed discrepancies between the two administrations as the City government was insisting that it wouldn’t be able to finish the respective process until March, after Schiavi and De Vido officially announced last week that “the transfer will go into effect on the first working day of 2012.”

Fortunately, things calmed down after both sides sit down recently for a series of talks to discuss all details.

Thus City takes control of the supervision of the subway and will begin the necessary meetings within the next 90 days.