ATM fares? Milan challenges the Region: "We don't want to raise ticket prices."

Milan - Arianna Censi states it clearly: "My position is not to increase public transport fares." And she adds just as clearly: "Increasing them is not mandatory. The Lombardy Region has made a political choice." These words were spoken yesterday, on the sidelines of a conference on autonomous driving hosted at the Meet Digital Culture Center. They refer to the resolution approved in recent days by the Regional Council, which allows for the possibility of increasing the prices of public transport tickets and passes, but also to the decision already made by the Region itself, as a 50% shareholder in Trenord: to increase the price of Malpensa Express tickets. Starting August 1st, two euros more will be charged to reach the airport from Milan or vice versa: 15 euros instead of 13. For intermediate journeys, however, the increase is one euro. These are, to be precise, those adjustments triggered by law due to the combined effects of inflation , as captured by ISTAT, and service quality indicators. If the average of these indicators is positive , then increases can be made. And public transport companies have every right to receive them. However, it's up to politicians to decide how to pay them. There are two options: draw from their own budgets and cover the cost of the adjustments out of their own pockets, or pass them on to citizens by adjusting the price of tickets and/or season tickets. The Lombardy Region (and Trenord), for the 2025-2026 season, have chosen the latter option. It remains to be seen what the Municipality of Milan, which controls ATM, intends to do.

Arianna Censi, Milan's transport councilor

Hence the response from the city councilor for mobility: "The decision will be made together with the shareholders' meeting of the Local Public Transport Agency at the end of July, because it is a decision that must be made by the Agency, given that we have the integrated ticketing system," Censi clarified. "I would like to point out, however, that the resolution is mandatory because it is part of the contract with those who manage the service, while the fare increase is not mandatory; it is a political choice. We have chosen not to increase the fares for 2023 and 2025 because we did not believe it was right to burden citizens with an additional cost at a time like this, and we believe it should be covered by national and regional transfers."

Having emphasized this, Censi previewed the following: "I believe that the discussions we will have in the coming weeks at the Agency will go precisely in this direction [that of covering fare increases by the Municipality , ed. ] because I think that, at this time, it is essential to support local public transport and that it is inappropriate, at this time, to increase fares. If the Lombardy Region has chosen to increase fares, even if only slightly, as it already did in 2023, my position, however, is against it, and not to increase them." Speaking of tickets, Franco Lucente, regional councilor for Transport, announced yesterday that "Lombardy is preparing to revolutionize the local public transport experience thanks to the new integrated digital ticketing system, which will allow travel on any vehicle with a single digital access and payment system. The project plans to launch the trial in the second half of 2026, with the goal of being fully operational by 2028."