Chat: Lux taxis: 'Too Expensive!', 'No they're not!'

Article from category: Traffic and Travel

Chat: Lux taxis: 'Too Expensive!', 'No they're not!'

It is still Panto season, and fittingly a new war of words has begun in the city. On one side: The Mayor and on the other the taxi federation

Published on 30/12/2011 by Stephen Lowe | Read 1134 times.

City Mayor Xavier Bettel gave one last broadside today - this time he's the price of taxis in his crosshairs.

One would imagine Bettel has the full support of the public in this matter. Here on 352LuxMag we have had a plethora of posts on the forum pointedly remarking on the apparantly exorbitant sums charged by local taxi firms.

Bettel argues that the prices are scaring potential customers away from using them as a means of getting about in the city. "I find the price of taxis in the city very high," he told l'essentiel: "You have to understand that many people do not take taxis in the capital, because it's too expensive. People cannot afford to pay 20-30 euros for a ten minute taxi ride."

Bettel sees this as one of his key battles for the new year and he will, undoubtedly, meet tough opposition from taxi owners.

Luis Serralha, owner of three taxis and vice president of the Federation of Taxi bosses counters that; "Luxembourg is an expensive country. The fares are not that much.." - in comparison to average salaries and use of phone networks.

Conversely, it is the city that sets the prices within the capital and this pricing structure follows nationwide, save for additional taxes in reagrds to evenings, weekends, bank holidays, sundays.

One way to recoup any potential shortfall if prices are slashed, according to Claude Weisler, is to allow more thirdparyt advertising on taxi-cabs.

Another is to allow taxi firms a discount on diesel.

The challenge for the Mayor, the Taxi Fed, and the interior minister is in how to balance the needs of the people and the needs of those employed by the firms. Further to that, there's the problem of a number of illegal cabs operating in the city. "There are an incredible number of illegal taxis, which are not controlled by the authorities. Everyone knows the problem, yet no one responds," laments Serralha.
Only cabs authorised by the ministry of transport are authorised to operate in the Grand Duchy, but a blind eye appears to have been turned for a number of years.

A crackdown is expected as of January.