A Price Cap Will Be Applied to Bus Tickets! Following the recent decision, a price cap will be introduced to prevent travel companies from raising ticket prices. The Ministry of Transport and Infrastructure is preparing a more comprehensive circular that will be submitted for approval to President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. With passenger capacity reduced by half due to the coronavirus, some travel firms have responded by passing higher costs on to passengers.
To stop tickets being sold at excessive prices, the Ministry of Transport and Infrastructure has drafted a circular. The ministry is working to widen the scope of this circular and plans to submit the expanded version to President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan for approval.
The Price Cap Will Apply to All Provinces!
The price cap will apply nationwide. The circular, to be submitted by the Ministry of Transport and Infrastructure for presidential approval, will introduce a base fare system for intercity bus journeys. The goal is to protect both companies and passengers from hardship and to prevent abuses that lead to inflated fares. Under the proposed regulation, a base fare will be established by calculating a price between the two most distant cities. For example, bus fares between Istanbul and Van currently range between 200 and 250 TL. The new approach will consider a potential 100% fare increase and divide that amount by the distance in kilometers. The resulting figure will be used as the base fare.
This measure will be presented to the President for approval. Once published in the Official Gazette, the per-kilometer base fare will apply to all intercity travel, preventing travel companies from selling tickets above the established rate. The ministry has stated that the regulation will remain in effect while the coronavirus pandemic continues. Once capacity restrictions are lifted, the temporary measure will be removed.