Bianjie

[journey]

Flat-rate nationwide public transport ticket launched in Bianjie 
State Council has announced the first tests of a nationwide monthly ticket for local and national public transport, valid nationwide at a fixed price, it would allow for unlimited travel on participating services 
7 March 5726



Already dubbed as the "revolution of public transport" in Bianjie, the upcoming Bianjiepiyoo, with -piyoo being the Bianjie word for "pass", or B-piyoo, is one of the most ambitious projects of the country's governments, when it comes the public transport system, being in works for a couple years now, is going to be tested out for two months before officially entering force on 1 June of this year.

For transport minister Suksaha Wenggot (ACT), and his predecessor, Nikan Albaki (ACT), this is the biggest challenge and achievement yet in the right-wing government's two-term tenure. Starting on 16 March, the current and future owners of the 60 g'an pass will be able to test out the revolutionary project set out by premier Sora Irifune and her government before the general populace. City limits, provincial borders, fare boundaries and even some international borders will no longer matter, minister Wenggot said.

Despite being fairly unitary state, the long-standing tradition of decentralised provincial and local governments have left its mark on the state of public transit in Bianjie, as the country finds itself in a complete disarray when it comes to the transport fares across the administrative units, with the national Ministry of Infrastructure and Transport having little to no say in a fare and pricing issues across the nation's provinces and its local governments, so the question has been under a debate for more than a decade now, with different governments and ministers proposing different solutions to the issue, but unable to find enough support. That is until now, when Irifune government has found a solution which was met with positive responses across the board: a nationwide month-long or year-long public transport ticket, funded by both local and provincial governments equally to ensure a proper cooperation to keep the project, that is expected to be benefitial for all sides involved, and push for a "revolution', with a decrease in using cars in favour of trains, better infrastructure, bigger marker and demand for a domestic train manifacturing and simply deeper cooperation between national and local governments, something that rarely happens these days.

The government has put out an announcement for pre-ordering the new nationwide transport pass in February, awaiting the high demand from citizens, and demand there was, with up to 1,7 million Bianjians flooding the newly-created website for B-piyoo in a span of two weeks, with another half a million reportedly also awaiting for their pass currently at the time of writing this article. "We expected hundreds of thousands, indeed, but these numbers go overboard all of our expectations, which means only one thing: it has been a long time coming", said transport minister Wenggot. "We also received calls from a number of citizens saying they would consider buying the pass, had it been cheaper, so we are working on more socially-acceptable prices currently, especially for low-income families or the vulnerable groups of citizens". And indeed, according to the University of Gemun Institute of Sociology (ISUG), 5-7% of respondents told the ISUG that they would buy the pass, had it been cheaper, or adjusted for groups unable to afford the B-piyoo.

Nevertheless, the ticket is largely benefitial for practically everyone in Bianjie, as monthly ticket like pass for all kinds of public transport (trains, buses, trams), both local, provincial and national, would be a much cheaper option than spending on each system separately, with transport ministry estimating that for most families and users the pass could cost as much as third, or even half of their usual expenses on a public transit in a country. On other hand, according to the ISUG poll, up to 30% of current buyers of the pass say they have been pretty common users of cars or taxis, leading MIT experts and pundits to assume the implementation would ease up traffic problems across the cities, and nation's most used highways, which will inevitably speed up many proceses, and help the economy. And talking about economy, the most obivous positive note of the project is millions of investment into the public transit, which in turn will attract millions of revenue from citizens and tourists likewise.

Bianjiepiyoo has not been an easy thing to kickstart, and it still has a lot of way to go, but it is clear that the momentum is there, and even despite harsh criticism and opposition from within the government, with ACT's own members from its libertarian wings voicing concerns about government involvement, and Green Alliance's more left-wing groups being disappointed at the concessions given to the provincial government and the whole project not going far enough and not environmentally-friendly enough, the pass has a potential, and pass can be revolutionary, for both Bianjie and possibly even the region, if proven successful. But a lot of it relies on both the government by implementing it, and us, as the users, to use it, and prove to the worst critics that all of this is worth it, which it absolutely is. 



べふ経済新聞 (Bianjie Economics Newspaper), also known as the Bekkei, is the second-largest economic newspaper in Bianjie, founded in 5561 and based in Niyalma.