RIGA, Oct 14 (LETA) - There is a plan to switch to only one-hour tickets in Riga's public transport system, Riga Vice Mayor Vilnis Kirsis (New Unity), who is in charge of the capital city's transport infrastructure and development, said in an interview with Latvian Television on Friday. 

In his words, this is necessary to encourage passengers to transfer from one transport to another, which would allow the public transport operator to shorten the routes and the passengers to reach their destinations faster. 

Kirsis said that Riga will announce its new policy of public transport fares in the next few weeks.

The Riga vice mayor noted that the number of public transport passengers dropped sharply during the Covid-19 pandemic. Now, the passengers are returning, but this is happening very slowly, Kirsis said.

He added that high energy costs currently represent a major challenge for the city's public transport, and that the change of fare policy is intended as one of the ways to partly deal with this problem.