Bus more than 30 minutes late? The passenger will be entitled to a refund of the ticket. A change which, if approved, could really change the lives of millions of Italians who have to face the nightmare of "public transport" every day.
This is just one of the measures contained in the draft of the decree on local public services (consolidated text implementing the Madia reform) which aims to reform the transport universe, eliminating delays and protecting citizens. According to what is stated in the measure, the refund will start after half an hour if the delay concerns city public transport, while at the local level it will be necessary to wait an hour before being entitled to compensation, obviously without prejudice to strikes, natural disasters or other events unpredictable.
The draft also provides for the tightening of penalties for passengers who are "caught" without a ticket or with an unstamped ticket. In this case, the fine will be defined by regional law or failing that, a common standard will be followed, i.e. a financial penalty "equal to 60 times the value of the ordinary ticket and in any case not exceeding 200 euros".
In addition, two other important innovations are envisaged: public transport companies will be able to rely on external subjects "qualified as investigating agents", who, within the limits of their service, acquire the "quality of public official". The Ministry of the Interior will then be able to make "agents and officials with judicial police qualifications available, according to a support program for investigating agents" for periods not exceeding 3 years and with coverage of the costs borne by the entity making the request .
Finally, in order to counter the phenomenon of "fare evasion", the companies will be able to use "surveys of the video surveillance systems present on board the vehicles and on the stop platforms" to be used as evidence for the identification of the transgressors.
