Four of the five minibus routes that were suspended last week in Chisinau were restored, but not fully. Lilian Copaci, acting head of the Public Transport and Communications Division, said that he wasn’t officially informed about the carriers’ decision to resume work and they will analyze the situation and will present information tomorrow.

Contacted by IPN for details, Lilian Copaci said the private carriers last week announced that they would resume work, but the Division wasn’t informed in written form about this by them. “We put a bus on Schinoasa St to replace minibus route No. 108. This ran throughout last week. Today I learned from the press that minibuses No. 108 are back on routes. Now there are a bus and minibuses running there. In a meeting at the City Hall tomorrow, we will ask for explanations from private carriers and they should tell us if they work or do not work. We are preparing an order to make the bus route a regular one,” he stated.

Oleg Alexa, chairman of the Board of the Employers Association of Motor Transport Operators, has told IPN that public hearings on the work of minibuses will be held and, if a compromise is not reached, the routes will stop work one after another. Minibus routes No. 178, 175 and 135 were restored, while route No. 129 cannot be restored as all the drivers who worked on this resigned.

The private carriers insist on two possible scenarios – subsidization of the work of minibuses from the municipal budget or increasing of fares. They said they would gradually stop work if no agreement is reached with the municipality.