Overview
Varazdin County has introduced a pilot project of free transportation of persons older than 65 years and retired on all regular lines of the company Bus Transport Ltd. from Varazdin to the whole county, which will be implemented from 1 November to the end of the year 2015 with the intention of improving the quality of life of older persons and pensioners.
By the end of the implementation of the pilot project the information will be collected information on the frequency of use of transportation, the busiest lines, the number and status of participants / passengers.
Funding
Results
If we consider the price of bus tickets that range lines included into the pilot project in one direction between 14-38 kuna in the Varazdin County and the number of realized free transportation, which moves on average over 11,000 per month, it is clear that the high costs are the crucial question to be solved.
According to the gathered information and data, it is evident that the transport operator is unable to provide this service permanently without some financial support. Given that the interest of pensioners to use buses is still huge, it will be impossible to continue to provide this kind of transport in the long term period free. In other words, it will be in some way limited the number of free rides or at least part of the ticket price will be co-financed.