Metrorex expects 250.5m-RON business

Metrorex, the company operating underground transport for Bucharest, has budgeted a business worth 250.5 million RON (around 75 million euros), up 6% on last year, as well as investments equivalent to 85% of the total turnover. “The increase in business will come from the 2% increase in revenues derived from transport, and also from the 10.7% increase in subsidies from the state budget,” stated Liviu Soava, general manager of Metrorex. The upward trend of revenues is not based on the increase in the number of passengers transported, instead it results from the approximately 10% increase in underground fares operated at the end of last year. Therefore Metrorex estimates it will transport 140 million passengers this year, a figure similar to last year. In 2006, Metrorex posted a business worth 235.5 million RON (approximately 67 million euros), a sum including the state budget subsidy for passengers using the underground, which is worth 150 million RON (some 42 million euros), according to company representatives.