Buses in São Paulo will be free on Sundays

Photo: Will Rodrigues / Shutterstock

The mayor of São Paulo, Ricardo Nunes, has announced that starting December 17, bus fares will be abolished on Sundays, as well as on Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, New Year’s Day, and the city’s January 25 anniversary.

The measure will be applied to all 1,175 bus lines in the city of São Paulo. It is estimated that the municipal government will lose out on BRL 283 million (USD 57 million) annually by eliminating fares for some 2.2 million passengers who take the bus on Sundays.

“The money we give up in revenue will be compensated by society using the transportation system to get to know the city. These next Sundays, we will be able to feel an activation of the city’s economy, with people buying water, cotton candy, popcorn, using the city’s spaces,” declared the mayor.

Mr. Nunes is fully committed to next year’s election campaign, in which he hopes to win re-election. However, to many, he was never elected in the first place. In 2020, he was the running mate of eventual victor Bruno Covas, who died of cancer just months after taking office, leaving Mr. Nunes to step in.

The mayor received scathing criticism during a massive power outage in November, and has faced heat over an increase in mobile phone theft around the city, and armed robbery in rich neighborhoods.

Mr. Nunes’s bus fare plan is set to face considerable resistance from the state governor, Tarcísio de Freitas, who is nominally one of his allies. Mr. Freitas emphatically denies any chance of cutting subway or overground train fares, amid workers’ walkouts.

Amanda Audi

Amanda Audi is a journalist specializing in politics and human rights. She is the former executive director of Congresso em Foco and worked as a reporter for The Intercept Brasil, Folha de S. Paulo, O Globo, Gazeta do Povo, Poder360, among others. In 2019, she won the Comunique-se Award for best-written media reporter and won the Mulher Imprensa award for web journalism in 2020