We've moved from Baltimore, Maryland USA to Venice, Italy in pursuit of living our dream!



Thursday, May 10, 2012

Good news and bad news for vaporetto users- effective TODAY!!


First- the bad news:  The price of a 60 minute vaporetto ticket has gone up from 6.50 Euros to 7.00 Euros effective May 10, 2012. That's today, folks.

Unfortunately- there is more bad news- price of the traghetto is going up to 4 Euros. Thanks to one of my readers MaryK for checking alittle further on which traghetto. I see now on the announcement I didn't read down far enough. I assumed it was the traghetto crossing the Grand Canal. It's  not. It's to use the regular vaporetto to cross a body of water, for example from Lido to S. Elena. Thank goodness it's not the one's crossing the Grand Canal! I was about to have a little hissy-fit!

Here's a photo of the announcement posted in the vaporetto docks today:






And the good news- according to the second announcement, the multi-day vaporetto ticket prices have been reduced.  New prices are posted below.



I'm going to add my 2 cents in here: compared to other European cities (for example Prague), Venice's public transportation is quite expensive. Considering the number of tourists using the vaporetto each year, ACTV must be doing pretty well. We all should buy stock, if it's a publicly held company! Venice's coffers are dry, despite it being a major tourist attraction. I would venture to bet the city is not getting any of this increase in the vaporetto fees.  Everywhere you look on the internet you will see articles and editorials moaning Venice's financial status, and the reasons why. I'm still not clear on why a tourist tax is not an acceptable alternative. Whenever I fly into the Dominican Republic, I pay just to enter the country. You cannot walk through the arrivals area of the airport without  handing over a $10   US "tourist" fee.  OK, Venice. There's my 2 cents. 

6 comments:

Dianne said...

Seven euros now. A big reason that I always tried to get a monthly ticket. My IMOB expires this month. There is no way I can renew it from the USA but I will get another one the next time I come to Venice (probably 2013). I will try to see if I can use my old one's picture but will be prepared with another picture (and also will plan to come at the beginning of the month so I can get my full use out of the monthly ticket. Has the price of the monthly ticket gone up too? I think that it is 28 Euros. As to the tragettto, I guess that the gondoliers need a raise but that certainly was a whopping one and I agree it will be difficult and cumbersome to enforce.

maryk said...

There was just a very loud groan of disbelief about the 4euros for the tragettto- surprised you didn't hear it!

I often use the Ca'Rezzonicco tragetto - but at 4 euro that becomes pretty limiting.

Hopefully the imob holders still travelling for 50c is true. I fully understand the need for price rises - but this is a monster.

maryk said...

More....... just looked on the ACTV site and it appears that they're talking about the vaporettos - as tragettos - so when you just go across the canal. The site says that it applies to Lido-S.Elena, S. Marco-S. Servelo, S. Marco-S. Giorgio and Zattere-Palanca.

So (fortunately) apparently not the Grand Canal tragettos!

Rob C said...

A tourist tax won't help, it won't go towards what the locals want, but it will put some of going. And what if you're just visiting family or on business?

And don't say that Italians woud be exempt as that woud be discrimination. Sorry to be a doom monger but I don't think it would help.

Now making sure everyone pays their fare, now that might help.

My 2c

Rob

Annette said...

Hi Karen, There is a tourist tax, a hotel tax, just like in all of the major cities of Italy (and now most of the smaller towns). I really think they should find a way to tax the tourists who come from the cruise ships - have you seen how obscenely huge they are? These tourists don't pay the hotel tax (as they sleep on the boats) spend all of their time and money in concentrated areas such as St Mark's and don't move out to to the other areas to buy lunch or a drink. These are the tourists who should pay more. I read somewhere that the average tourist only stays 11 hours on Venice - I still find that hard to believe...but then again.

Gary Francis said...

Be interesting to see what impact the new tourist tax has. I still can't see how it will be collected.