More and newer trains are needed, as well as more drivers and other employees, for CP to be able to respond to yet another increase in demand. THE Renaissancethe coordinator of the Workers’ Committee of the public railway transport company says that the Government needs to provide the company with conditions, including autonomy for the administration to “negotiate with unions”.
On the day that the Government of Luís Montenegro presented the new Green Railway Pass, worth 20 euros, Catarina Cardoso states that the compensation to be paid by the Government to CP “is not the only issue to guarantee the supply and to guarantee the service”, as that “people are missing”.
“The Government has not announced that CP has the freedom to negotiate remuneration conditions with unions that would, in fact, allow it to reinforce the number of workers. This is a major concern of the Workers’ Committee. Just as it has not yet announced the unblocking of the 117 trains” , declares the workers’ representative. The purchase, which was awarded to the Alstom-DST consortium in November 2023, was challenged in court shortly afterwards, and there is no known development in the process.
Catarina Cardoso recalls that “the minister had even said, a few weeks before the announcement of the pass, that CP did not need more trains”, and says that this is a “lie”.
“We need more trains, urgently”, warns the coordinator of the Workers’ Committee, explaining that “the elasticity of supply is directly linked to the trains we have to operate, which are old and few, and to the people who operate them, who also, perhaps, there are not enough and, therefore, the supply cannot stretch infinitely”.
The representative assures that “no one can estimate exactly what changes will happen” in passenger demand for CP services, so the impact of the measure must be evaluated “for two, three months”.
The Government announced compensation of almost 20 million euros to CP for the revenue lost with the application of the Green Rail Pass. But the company’s report and accounts for 2023 reveal that the value of the National Rail Pass for that year was not transferred to the company.
Catarina Cardoso says that the amount has not yet been paid, “as far as we know”. “It’s not just what is owed for the provision of the public service contract, it’s when this is paid”, highlights the CP worker, who also reveals that the pass created in 2023, worth 40 euros, “never came to be regulated”.
Source: rr.sapo.pt
