A historic achievement in Rio de Janeiro. The new Bill (PL) that takes control of the Single Ticket away from Fetranspor and establishes a more transparent management was finally approved at ALERJ, on July 3. This is PL 849/2019, which was proposed by the state government, after the governor Wilson Witzel had vetoed the previous bill. Fortunately, the text is very similar to the last one and, therefore, the arguments by Casa Fluminense and other organizations about the approval did not change. The approved PL now proceeds to a new sanction with the received amendments. Because it is an initiative of the actual executive, we believe that the chance of a veto is very low.

On June 11, Casa Fluminense held a demonstration in Largo da Carioca, in the center of Rio, to remind Governor Witzel that the bill (which takes the control away from Fetranspor over the data of the electronic ticketing in the state and attempts to combat corruption in the sector) was on his desk for over a week to be sanctioned. On June 18, however, the Official Gazette published, one day before the conclusion of the deadline for its sanction, the veto of Witzel for the PL. “The decision signals the back-tracking of the governor on one of his campaign promises, about confronting the transport mafias and making tariffs more transparent. At the end of May, the text of the bill had been approved unanimously at ALERJ,” reported the Casa Fluminense.

This is a historic victory for Rio de Janeiro and an important step to combat the corruption in the transport system. Having more transparency is the path to improve the quality of the service and also for fairer prices.