Business 3 min read By Callum Montgomery
STB Administrator Proposes Higher Fares and Ending Free Rides for Many Pensioners
The insolvency administrator of Societatea de Transport București proposes raising ticket prices and restricting free travel, while the company has cut over 1,700 jobs and owes hundreds of millions of lei.
The insolvency administrator of Societatea de Transport București (STB) is proposing a series of restructuring measures that could make tickets more expensive and restrict free travel. The single 90-minute ticket would rise from 3 to 5 lei, and the monthly pass from 80 to 100 lei. The company estimates that the ticket increase would bring in additional revenue of approximately 131.5 million lei per year.
The proposal on free travel primarily targets pensioners. Free travel would be kept only for pensions below 3,000 lei, which would affect approximately 220,000 pensioners. The measure would also eliminate free travel for pensioners' companions, as well as for employees of municipal companies. According to the documentation notes, the estimated annual savings from this measure would reach 138 million lei.
The current cost of free travel is around 24.6 million lei per month, of which 22.49 million lei is attributable to pensioners. The document also provides for increasing the recognized profit margin from 3.07% to 7%. All these measures are, for now, proposals, and the final decision rests with the competent authorities.
STB has been in insolvency since 8 September 2026. By the end of October 2026, the company was recording revenues of approximately 1.2 billion lei and losses of 765 million lei. Salary costs reached approximately 81% of revenues in the first ten months of the year. The cost gap for 2025 was 1.46 billion lei needed, compared with approximately 1.22 billion lei actually paid.
The financial situation is aggravated by receivables of 610 million lei, of which 160 million lei are penalties. The Capital City Hall is owed 423.2 million lei, and Transport Public Local București (TPBI) 186.7 million lei. Creditors have registered admitted claims of 1.63 billion lei, the largest share owed to ANAF, amounting to 1.335 billion lei. Contract renegotiation has brought savings of approximately 72 million lei, mostly from the contract with Daimler.
The company has reduced its headcount from 10,137 to 8,428 positions, a decrease of 1,709 positions. Of these, 919 were vacant, and for the rest, 796 dismissal notices were issued. The reductions affected the TESA departments, management, drivers and ticket inspectors, as well as administrative staff.
Another aspect flagged in the documents is the high number of family relationships among employees. A total of 4,876 such relationships were identified, of which 1,428 are spouse-to-spouse relationships. The largest families include 20, 16 and 11 employees, respectively. The documents also outline the company's digitalisation plans: electronic travel logs and expanded ticket sales would be implemented in November and December.
Source: economedia.ro
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