Seniors, pupils and students will have a 75% discount on trains and buses

"The discount will apply to all seniors of over 65 years of age and to occasional travellers for who it would not pay off to buy an annual pre-paid ticket. So when you are travelling by train and the discount will apply to you, it will be enough for you to show your ID card when buying the ticket and you will get the discount. We will provide the discount not only on railway fares, but also on bus travels. In the Czech Republic we have 6 258 municipalities and only 1 663 municipalities have a railway connection, but as many as 6 203 municipalities are served by bus services, mostly subsidised from public resources. So we want to be fair also towards those who cannot travel by train from their homes,“ explains the transport minister Dan Ťok.
 
Minister Ťok says that the discount on the fare will improve the availability of public transportation for a large low-income group of the population with a limited possibility of travelling on trains and buses more frequently. Seniors over 65 years of age and travellers aged between 15 and 18 will show their identity document, of which the ID card, the passport or another official document with a photo is most common. Travellers aged 18 and more will have to show their student card, the form of which is subject to current negotiations with the transport providers.
 
The transport providers will be able to exclude certain connections from the discount. But what specific connections these will be is still the subject of negotiations.
 
The Ministry of Transport will compensate the discounts in a way similar to that in which it currently compensates the state-ordered discounts on commercial connections in railway and bus transport. The state currently pays 100% for children under six years of age, half for children aged 6-15, 62.5% for pupils aged 15 and 25% for students under the age of 26 who travel to school. The handicapped (holders of the ZTP or ZTP/P card) currently have a 75% discount that does not change. The introduction of new discounts for pupils, students and senior citizens this year will require a compensation of the losses incurred by the transport providers, amounting to about CZK 3 billion and CZK 6 billion from 2019, of which about one half goes to passenger railway transport and the other half to bus transport.
 
The system of new discounts will be introduced through an amendment of the Assessment of the Ministry of Finance, through which a list of goods with regulated prices is issued. From 10 June, this will replace and update the current discounts stipulated for transport providers in public transportation. In addition to this, it will be necessary to modify the computer systems of the individual transport providers and amend their contracts stipulating the terms and conditions for the provision of public services. This step will lead to a major consolidation of the complex system of discounts, as it has been used so far, without the need for generating further administration.