The decision taken by the Riga City Council (RD) Transport Department (SD) to cancel discounts on minibus routes had a significant impact on the overall passenger flow on all routes, the company points out.
Discounts were cancelled on 203, 204, 209, 214, 233, 224, 263 and 271 minibus routes, transformed into high service express bus routes 303, 304, 309, 314, 322, 324, 336, 337, 341, 344, 346.
In total, the average number of passengers per 1 km has decreased from 0.92 passengers in July 2019 to 0.46 passengers in July 2020.
Currently, the RMS cannot provide passenger services with the existing number of passengers per day and will therefore close the abovementioned routes between August 3 and 31 of this year.
As the autumn season begins, RMS plans to re-establish routes gradually and hopes that passengers will return, as it is customary that people are returning to town from vacations and summer cottages at this time.