Response from TMMOB to İZBAN's Plus Money Application

TMMOB Izmir Provincial Coordination Board stated that Artı Para, implemented by İzmir Metropolitan Municipality in İZBAN, caused great grievances and warned the municipality to end this practice.

With the decision of Izmir Metropolitan Municipality, the problems brought by the UM plus money X application implemented at 15 February 2018 in İZBAN continue to grow. There are many drawbacks in three weeks.

In the case of surplus money, the full payment is received in advance according to the maximum distance you can leave from the station where you are going, and long queues are formed in front of the return validators placed at the station exits for the return of the extra amount. Although the system is valid after a distance of 25 km, it is applied without discrimination on the whole line. In addition, thousands of people skip the return process every day with the frustration and forgetfulness of daily life, and this creates tens of thousands of TL unjustified earnings for each day.

With the application, everyone has to have his own card and this card has to have enough balance to reach the most remote station. As a result, the option of the citizens to use their own cards for the guests coming from outside the city or for the other citizens whose card is not working is inadequate. Moreover, no matter what the distance to go for those coming from outside the city, 10 prepaid ticket with the amount of 3 pounds and the possibility of a non-refundable ticket has arisen.

In the way that we all witness, students who are able to keep their balance on their card and the people with low income are experiencing problems depending on the new practice, and often there are grievances caused by lack of balance in the stations.

In addition to all of these, the application of plus money leaves the private security officers in the stations, not the architects of the application. In this sense, the workers of İZBAN, who are not involved in the creation of the problem, are among the victims of this practice.

As is known, the construction of railway lines in İZBAN, where TCDD and İzmir Metropolitan Municipality are the 50 partners, is carried out by TCDD and the establishment of such structures as a station and maintenance workshop by IMM. The transportation system created in this way is operated by the company İZBAN. In addition, the IMM is paid the TCDD a high railway line rental price indexed to the TCDD every year. This rent must be reduced for the benefit of İzmir residents. It is not in the public interest to try to cover these high costs with the understanding of ”pay as much as you go ına from the people of Izmir.

In sum, in addition to being against populist, public municipalism, the implementation of surplus money implemented in IZBAN has turned into a pity for the people of Izmir, who are currently experiencing difficulties in transportation with crowded wagons. As the Izmir Provincial Coordination Council, we call upon Izmir Metropolitan Municipality to initiate the application with the decision of the parliament and to call upon the voice of the citizens and to return to the road close to this mistake.