Regional public transport passenger carriers in Latvia are once again considering organizing a protest over the revision of long-term contract prices, while the Road Transport Administration (ATD) says it is still assessing the legal options for making any changes to contracts.
On January 7, the Latvian Passenger Carriers Association (LPCA/LPPA) met with Transport Minister Atis Svinka and the ATD to discuss problems in the passenger transport sector.
LPPA President Ivo Osenieks said that the meeting was tense and that carriers wanted answers to two questions: how long-term contract prices would be revised and what additional funding would be required.
“No answers were provided, therefore carriers are considering the next steps, including possible protest actions. The option of going to court is also being considered, because the sector is being ignored,” Osenieks said.
At the same time, he explained that the Transport Ministry’s draft order to allocate EUR 9 million for regional bus transport this year covered only missing base funding needed to prevent cuts to the route network.
“It does not solve the issue that the economic situation has changed and that actual costs now significantly exceed contract prices,” he added.
Osenieks stressed that the rise in real operating costs was not due to carriers’ incompetence, but to global events whose impact could not have been predicted during the procurement process.
“That is why we are demanding that contract prices be revised, and additional funding is needed to compensate for this increase – something the ministry does not want to acknowledge,” he said.
He added that indexing contracts above the originally bid prices would require at least EUR 15 million in total on top of the base funding.
“That means at least another EUR 6 million would be needed,” Osenieks said.
ATD Chairman Janis Lapins said that the agency was continuing to work on carriers’ submission, noting that the contracts were awarded through public procurement. In December 2025, ATD met with the Procurement Monitoring Bureau (IUB) to assess risks and to understand the legal possibilities of whether such contracts could be changed at all and amended, Lapins said.
He added that ATD was currently awaiting a written response from the IUB regarding possible scenarios and actions.
“The issue is not only whether it is possible to raise contract prices, but also, for example, what indexing mechanisms could be used,” Lapins said.
Lapins emphasized that carriers themselves set the per-kilometre prices in the contracts and expressed readiness to perform contracts at those prices.
“If a carrier does not want to perform a contract and wants to terminate it, we are ready to look for solutions and for carriers willing to fulfil the contracts, because passengers must be provided with mobility,” he said. (BNN)