More than half of buses under the management of "Urban Bus Park" Municipal Enterprise are old and must be renewed. This statement was made by Vitalie Copaci, head of the enterprise, during the presentation of the Report on Bus Park financial activity at a City Hall working meeting, IPN reports.

According to him, at the moment the company has 144 transport units under its management, of which 31 are new, well-equipped, purchased in 2019. Another 90 buses need to be replaced.

Vitalie Copaci says that the average age of the transport units is 14 years, before the new buses were purchased, the average age was 18 years.

Also, according to him, the enterprise faces acute problems of staff shortage, especially bus drivers and conductors. Currently, over 100 jobs are vacant within the company, most of them being for these categories of employees.

The head of Urban Bus Park claims that company’s total income amounts to 80.4 million lei, while expenses constitute 80.6 million lei this year, being on a rise as compared to the last year. However, he argues that next year he expects revenue increases of 5.5 million lei due to the increase in the number of routes and passengers.

The cost of transporting a passenger, says Vitalie Copaci, constitutes about 10 lei and 50 bani, which is a triple cost compared to the price of a ticket.