It’s Time to Start Walking — Bus Fares Increase Again Tomorrow.

Beginning Thursday August 14th, 2008 the rates for public buses all over the country will increase by 13% causing most bus fares to go up an average of 20 to 50 colones. Buses traveling from the capital city to the greater surrounding area are raising their prices in correspondence with the nation’s inflation. If you’re planning to travel from Tibas or San Pedro you can expect to see a 20 colon increase while trips to Alajuela and Cartago will increase by 50 colones.

The Regulating Authority of Public Utilities (ARESEP) unfortunately approved the 13% increase on Wednesday, Aug. 6, raising the trip from the capital city to it’s neighboring province Alajuela from ¢370 to ¢420. There are many people who travel to and from Alajuela to San Jose on a daily basis that will have to pay the additional ¢3,000, making their monthly travel expenses about ¢25,200 (roughly about $45.00 USD). For families that are struggling with the economy as it is, this does not come as a welcome surprise.

Other popular bus routes that will also be affected are the San Jose-Heredia route through Tibas. It will increase from ¢300 to ¢340 and longer routes such as those from San Jose to Liberia will rise as well from ¢2,575 to ¢2,905. In total, the inflation-based increase will affect a total of 723 routes throughout the country.

The vast increase comes as a surprise to many as we are only half way through the year and have already seen a bus rate jump back in April. The first adjustment of the year was only a 5% increase and many barely noticed the few extra coins missing from their pockets, however, this increase is too steep not to notice.

ARESEP is blaming the steep 13% increase on the rising cost of diesel fuel, inflation, and the devaluation of the Colon against the dollar. The cost of diesel rose ¢150 a liter between April and July bring the cost up to a shocking ¢710 a liter (roughly about $50.00 USD for 10 gallons of fuel). It was the latest ¢88 increase in fuel during the month of July that caused the bus industry, which consumes around 250,000 liters of diesel fuel a month, to spend an extra ¢22 million ($40,750) making the increase in bus prices inevitable, however it’s not just the high cost of Costa Rica Travel that has everyone down.

Consumer price inflation in general has gone up during the first half of this year bringing it two percentage points (6.5%) higher than what the National Statistics and Census Institute reported last year (4.7%). The colon is now decreasing in value when compared to the dollar making industries and people who receive income in colones suffer against the market. However, ARESEP felt confident that the change could be made without causing too much damage to both the private households and the local economy due to an increase in the minimum wage.

ARESEP reports that by the second half of 2008 the nation’s average minimum wage among workers in the private sector has increased 6.5%. Admittedly, this is not much when you factor in the devaluation of the colon against the dollar as well and the biggest rate of inflation the nation has seen in the past 12 years. Those who did receive the increase probably won’t be able to hold on to any extra savings due to the increase in prices of fuel, food, and other house hold necessities. Unfortunately, many citizens didn’t receive an increase at all in their wages and are struggling even harder just to make ends meet.

In order to counterbalance the changes, bus drivers are pressuring the Government and the Legislative Assembly to create a law that exempts buses to pay the tax on diesel fuel. Hopefully, if this request can be met, and oil prices stop their upward incline, we won’t be seeing any further increases in bus fares or other products and services, as has been the trend for the past several months.

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Filed under: Travel on August 13th, 2008