More than 2,200 buses will be examined to see if they meet the comfort requirements. By February 3, 232 road transport operators submitted classification schedules and about 90 operators confirmed they will present such schedules by this weekend. The authorities estimate that only 10% of the buses could be included in the category of superior comfort vehicles, IPN reports.

Secretary of state at the Ministry of Economy and Infrastructure Iulian Postică told a news conference that 24 periodic technical inspection stations were authorized to classify the buses.

The National Motor Transport Agency adjusted the automated information system Autotest by which each vehicle undergoing the periodic technical inspection is monitored in real time. The Agency will inform the administration of bus and minibus stations about the operators that didn’t submit schedules for the inclusion of buses into comfort categories so that their vehicles are removed from regular routes.

Iulian Postică said the inclusion of the units of transport in the superior category does not mean that the fare will definitely be raised to 0.70 lei/km as there, as the operators confirmed in discussions. Moreover, there is the competition factor as a number of operators work on one and the same route. In the case of routes with one operator, the carrier could apply the charge of 0.70 lei only for the vehicle included in the superior category or should have the whole pool modernized to be able to collect a higher fare.

The inclusion of motor vehicles in the superior category was one of the conditions for increasing the interurban route fares as of January 1, 2020 – by 0.12 lei/km (up to 0.60 lei/km), and for super-comfort categories by 0.22 lei/kg (up to 0.70 lei/km).

According to the Register of Road Transport Operators, there are over 6,095 buses, about 3,200 of which run on inter-district and district routes.