The number of minibuses that transport passengers along routes in Chisinau - about 1,100 units - could remain unchanged because the authorities do not seem disposed to agree to change the converted freight vans taken out of routes with second-hand cars for transporting passengers, chairman of the Private Transporters Association Ion Mamaliga told Info-Prim Neo. Mamaliga expressed his bewilderment at the central authorities’ determinedness to ban the transportation of passengers by reequipped minibuses. He said that the Mercedes minibuses chosen by most of the private transporters can be used for multiple purposes as they have the necessary technical capacities and can be modified as the buyer wants. When saying that the converted freight vans are dangerous, the authorities “use shifts”, the leader of the private carriers considers. One of the reasons, according to the cited source, is that certain market players are lobbying to sell in Moldova minibuses made in Ukraine and China. [Transporters are afraid to risk] Ion Mamaliga says that when the private carriers started to import minibuses in the country for passenger transportation, they made a mistake. They indicated in the customs documents that the purpose of the vehicles was transportation of goods. The transporters did so because the authorities levied small taxes for this category of vehicles at that time in order to stimulate the imports to develop the transportation of goods. Nowadays the transporters are ready to pay higher taxes for clearing the minibuses designed for passenger transportation, but they are afraid to risk owing to the rumours that the authorities are preparing a bill to ban the imported minibuses because they have few seats. It is said that they will allow only minibuses made by Chinese or Ukrainian producers that have lately appeared on the market and have more seats. Meanwhile, Chisinau authorities’ plans regarding the optimisation of the public transport remain unknown. The local public administration is concerned that the public transport would run not smoothly following the withdrawal of 500 minibuses on January 1, 2008. According to Ion Mamaliga, as there are only 1,100 minibuses, some of the routes could be merged in order to optimise the transportation services. The travellers are already dissatisfied with the fact that the minibuses do not travel along routes as often as earlier. [The City Hall remains silent] The local authorities keep silent though they promised to make a decision at the start of the year over Mayor General Dorin Chirtoaca’s initiative to restore the old routes of the minibuses along Stephan the Great Boulevard and the main streets of Chisinau. The only decision made by the local authorities was to extend the exploitation term of the units of transport older than 15. The decision applies only to the minibuses that already work on routes and will pass the technical examination. Since the Government banned the use of converted freight vans for transporting passengers last August, about 900 units have been taken out of routes in the municipality of Chisinau alone. The minibus owners protested for numerous times, but the central authorities have not modified their prior decision. As it is well known, the local budget is austere and does not include resources for buying trolleybuses and buses this year. The last units of transport were purchased by the former mayor Vasile Ursu, who got along well with the central authorities. Ten Ukrainian trolleybuses for 140,000 USD a unit and 20 German buses MAN for 50 million lei overall were acquired in 2005 and 2006. Some of the old trolleybuses were equipped with new coachworks – method considered to be less costly than the purchase of new units. Earlier, the municipal transporters estimated that they would need about 230 new units of transport to ensure a functional public transport in Chisinau - 350 trolleybuses and 250 buses. A number of 270 trolleybuses and 108 buses work along routes in the municipality of Chisinau at present, but this is not enough to cope with the demand. It was many times said, but not much was done to change certain itineraries in order to optimise the routes. [Strategy for developing public transport gathers dust] The local authorities have not yet put into practice the strategy for developing public transport approved in June 2006. The main aim of the strategy is to attract private investments to public transport and develop competition. The strategy for developing public transport in the municipality of Chisinau includes measures aimed at improving the public transport management, recommendations how to work out the methodology for calculating and regulating fares and the methodology for subsidizing transport operators as well as the social protection policy and an efficient model of collecting fares in public transport. The strategy’s action plan envisages the allocation of about 3.4 billion lei by 2010 for developing the street networks and the transport facilities, including building artificial facilities (viaduct, bridges, and highways) and trolleybus lines.