Pensioners in Jõhvi municipality aged 63 and over had been eligible to ride for free on city buses in Kohtla-Järve, whose municipality is adjacent to Jõhvi's – the two towns are a few kilometers apart.

However, starting Thursday, Jõhvi's elderly have had to start paying the €0.70 concessionary rate, Russian-language "Aktuaalne kaamera" reported.

The Jõhvi–Kohtla-Järve pilot began on September 1, primarily to allow the municipality's schoolchildren, including from the more outlying settlements of Järveküla and Kohtla-Nõmme, to get to school and back more easily. Concessions on the city buses were then extended to other Jõhvi residents, with Jõhvi municipality paying the difference in ticket price.

Aivar Kamal, head of Kohtla-Järve's finance service, said Jõhvi residents had the same conditions as Kohtla-Järve's own — pensioners traveled free, schoolchildren paid 50 cents — and that the project had been budgeted at €12,000 to year end. However, the money ran out in less than two months. The contract with Jõhvi is now being revised: the municipality wants to keep the concessions, but with pensioners paying 70 cents a trip, while schoolchildren from Jõhvi will continue to pay 50 cents.

According to Jõhvi Municipality spokesperson Ilmar Aun, free transport to Jõhvi pensioners between the hours of 9 a.m. and 9 p.m. had turned out to be the most expensive for the municipality.

He said that in October alone passengers had made almost 4,800 free trips, a level of demand the municipality had not expected. Each trip cost its budget one euro — so approximately €4,800 for the month. Maintaining the same concessions Kohtla-Järve gives its own residents would have cost Jõhvi €120,000 to €130,000 a year, Aun said.

The municipality says it intends to keep the concessionary fares next year as well. Whether free travel returns for elderly Jõhvi residents will depend on negotiations with Kohtla-Järve. Travel conditions for elderly residents of Kohtla-Järve itself are unchanged.

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