The national government resolved to increase by 45% the bus and railway fares in Buenos Aires City, the Infrastructure and Transportation Ministry informed on Friday.

For trains, the minimum tickets will cost AR$37.4 (US$0.04) on the Roca, Belgrano Sur, and Belgrano Norte lines and AR$43.4 (US$0.05) on the Mitre, Sarmiento, San Martín, and Urquiza lines starting on January 15. For buses, the increase is scheduled for next Monday, and the price for the initial tranche will be AR$76.9 (US$0.09).

The Infrastructure and Transportation Ministry called for a public hearing for the first half of January to discuss further increases in train fares. The government will also put up a working group of representatives of transportation businesspeople and workers to decide on further increases in bus fares.

The ministry said in two separate communiqués that railway and bus fares are “heavily subsidized” by the national administration. It argued that the government transfers railway operators 98% of its operating costs, and bus companies 91%. The rest is raised from what passengers pay.

The ministry argued that those figures are “a result of a misguided public policy of freezing fares.”