Compared with those in the regulation currently in force, price ceilings in the new directive are 30 percent higher.

The regional affairs minister-issued regulation states that fares on Estonia's county bus routes will be capped at €10 for single-journey and 90-minute fares, €20 for one-day (24-hour) passes and €150 for monthly (30-day) passes.

The price of long-distance bus tickets, meanwhile, will be capped at €25.

Andres Ruubas, director of the ministry's Public Transport Department, explained to ERR that the amended Public Transport Act restructured the fare and ticket pricing system. Under the new system, the ministry will first establish price ceilings for bus fares and tickets by regulation, and within that framework set final fare and ticket prices with a separate directive.

"Final fare prices aren't going to change at the moment," Ruubas emphasized. The only thing being introduced by this regulation in question is a new category of fare – a five-day bus pass, which is in demand in Northeastern Estonia's Ida-Viru County.

A €10 price ceiling does, however, leave open the possibility that a single-journey fare could in fact really cost that much someday.

According to the ministry official, these rates were deliberately set slightly higher so that the fare-pricing structure wouldn't have to be changed each year and so that it would be easier to change the price of fares.

"Another reason is the fact that while most county bus lines have a [uniform] single-journey fare price of €1.50, Northern Estonia employs a zone-based system," Ruubas explained. "And that single-journey fare price also includes four zones' single-journey fare price. Currently, for example, that has a price of €3.80. This price ceiling, then, will enable prices to be changed by directive, should the need arise."

He said that in a multi-zone region, the price of a single-journey fare may well indeed be €10 someday. Nonetheless, no decision has been made right now to increase fares.

"The decision right now is that the [framework was] restructured," Ruubas noted. "There are no plans to increase fare prices, but it cannot be ruled out that this will happen in the future."

The ministry public transport chief was unable to say when fare prices could go up, noting that that is a political decision. As the public transport sector is underfunded, however, this need may arise in the near future.

"The pressure is actually to find additional funding for public transport – and this pressure stems from the fact that we lack the resources and the state is likewise in a difficult financial situation," he explained. "In this case, our choices are very difficult: either reduce the accessibility of public transport for people or maintain the service at its current capacity but increase [riders'] own contributions in the form of [the price of] fares."

Ruubas did, however, assure that current fare prices on county bus routes will remain unchanged through the end of the year.

Ridership profile unchanged by return of fares

According to the new regulation, fare and ticket prices must be increased in the event of a continuing increase in bus transport costs.

This includes the need to purchase, via bus transport procurements, buses that run on alternative fuels, which are significantly more expensive than diesel buses.

Beginning this year, Estonia did away with free public transport on its county bus routes. In spite of this, Ruubas noted, the county bus' ridership hasn't changed.

"Just as before implementing fares, working-age riders accounted for less than 20 percent of county bus ridership, and so it has remained," the ministry official acknowledged. "In other words, it's mainly elderly people and schoolchildren riding on county routes. They're not riding because of the fare, but by and large because they need to reach vital services or work."

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