Thousands of passengers across Buenos Aires are affected by strikes this week as bus companies demand the government update subsidies for them. 

Subway lines also stopped circulating last night as workers demanded their working hours be reduced because of fears about asbestos in the underground network. 

Some 18,500 buses stopped running from Monday night to 5 a.m. on Tuesday, and all buses on lines 1 to 199 will be suspended due to further industrial action tomorrow between 1 p.m. and 3 p.m. 

Transport business associations say they are reducing service to cut costs because the government has been slow to pay subsidies, according to a statement signed by several passenger transport companies.

“There’s no money to provide the full service,” said Mario Vacca, head of the Buenos Aires Urban Transport Business Chamber (CETUBA), in an interview with Radio Mitre. “Companies are desperate and doing what they can. During the morning, we bring people to work, and then we take them home in the afternoon, that’s why we’re reducing the services between 1p.m. and 3p.m, to save some expenditures,” he added. 

However, sources in the Transport Ministry told Télam that the payments were made last week. 

Last night, subway lines B and C were down because workers were on strike, continuing industrial action they carried out last week. Workers are demanding that their working hours be reduced due to the presence of asbestos – a carcinogenic mineral – in the lines. According to their statistics, 37% of subway trains in the city contain asbestos.