While the fight for co-participation grows, the Nation and the City negotiate the fine print of the transfer of 32 bus lines

Technical teams from the national government and the City of Buenos Aires met this Wednesday at the headquarters of the Ministry of Transportation to advance in the negotiations for the transfer to the Buenos Aires orbit of 32 bus lines that have origin and destination within that jurisdiction. The axes were the legal, technical and economic aspects.

Although the responsibility for the funds for its operation tensed the meetings on several occasions, when the Nation decided to include the City in the compensatory fund for public transport in the interior, it unlocked a large part of the conflict. By 2022, the fight was over $13 billion in subsidies.

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The dispute leaked in the middle of the fight for co-participating resources that Nación reminded CABA in the midst of a pandemic and that reached the Supreme Court of Justice.

In this framework, as TN learned, from the national government they trust that they can reach a definitive agreement by April, from both sides they are in charge of ratifying that it has to be by mutual agreement and that there are no deadlines to close. The transfer of the buses would complete the autonomy of the City, which already has the police and the subways under its jurisdiction.

Ongoing negotiations

From the Buenos Aires Ministry of Transportation and Public Works, they confirmed to this medium that they are working with the Nation “in an institutional framework of tariff and operational coordination”, but they pointed out that “it is complex and has many variables.” “The dialogue between the technical teams is advancing,” they assured.

The negotiations for the transfer of the collectives slipped into the dispute between Horacio Rodríguez Larreta and the Nation over co-participating funds (Photo: Télam).

In the nation’s Ministry of Transportation, headed by Diego Giulano, they trust that this Wednesday was one of the last meetings to achieve the drafting of the agreement in which a definitive legal framework is established, which ensures who will be in charge of the resources.

As reported by the transport portfolio through a statement, the advancement of this agreement “seeks a more equitable and federal distribution of resources for automotive passenger transport.”

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“This process began in February 2021 to comply with Law 26,740, Article 2 of the year 2012, which ratifies the transfer to the City of Buenos Aires of the Underground Transportation and Premetro Services; of automotive and tram transport whose provision corresponds exclusively to its territory, and whose transfer was not carried out in full”, recalled the ministry.

Of the 135 bus lines that circulate through the City of Buenos Aires, 103 are interjurisdictional, that is, they circulate on one side of General Paz and the other, and 32 have routes that begin and end within the Federal Capital.