Antigua Council achieves improved taxi fares after 14 years
- Mayor Juan Cabrera announces that the council has honoured its commitment to the sector to raise fares, which had become completely outdated.
The mayor of Antigua, Juan Cabrera, and the councillor for Transport, Agustín Rodríguez, met today with the municipality’s two taxi associations to fulfil the commitment made to the sector regarding the harmonisation of fares by zone.
“The fares were completely outdated — they hadn’t been touched in 14 years and were the same across the whole municipality. We’ve managed to improve them because otherwise it would have ruined the sector, given that fuel, vehicle parts and labour costs have all risen,” says mayor Juan Cabrera. “We also agreed today to install a shelter at the taxi rank in Antigua town centre,” he adds.
This is the first step towards future negotiations to update and modernise the taxi sector in the municipality of Antigua, Juan Cabrera announces.
For his part, the councillor for Transport, Agustín Rodríguez, adds that it took three months of intense work and a great deal of red tape to keep tariff three exclusive to Antigua town centre, while allowing the rest of the municipality to adopt the same fare as other municipalities. “This was something taxi professionals had long been calling for, and it had never been achieved before,” the councillor points out.
Following the meeting, Francisco Vera, president of the Caleta de Fuste Taxi Association, expressed his satisfaction at getting the green light for the restriction of tariff 3, “and now we’re going to work on updating the urban fare,” he says.
Meanwhile, Toño Franquiz, president of the Antigua Taxi Association, welcomed the increase. “It’s a measure that benefits taxi owners, because we still have a very low fare in Antigua town centre, but we’re improving things across the rest of the municipality,” Franquiz explains, thanking the governing group for its willingness to engage from day one. “They’re listening to us now, there’s dialogue, and we’re going to achieve further improvements in the future,” he predicts.
Juan Cabrera concludes that relations with the taxi sector have been close during these first hundred days, and that the Caleta de Fuste rank has been extended so drivers can work more comfortably.
