The process of classifying the interurban units of transport into comfort categories that was launched last year was to end on October 1. But the deadline was extended until December 1 owing to the pandemic. Even so, not all the units of transport were subject to assessment. Of the over 2,000 tested vehicles, only slightly over 100 were included in the superior class.

Contacted by IPN for details, Yuri Gulca, of the National Road Transport Agency, said that 2,657 units of transport were to be assessed according to the timetables presented by operators. As many as 2,074 vehicles were yet examined last year. Eighteen of them weren’t validated because they didn’t meet the technical conditions. In these cases, prescriptions were issued for removing the shortcomings. A new assessment is to follow.

Of the 2,056 validated vehicles, 104 fell into the superior comfort class, while 1,475 into the second class. A number of 1,579 comfort category certificates were issued, while the rest are yet to be collected. In the absence of such certificates, the minibus or bus cannot run on routes.

The classification of units of transport into comfort categories was one of the conditions for increasing the fares on interurban passenger routes by 0.12 lei per km (up to 0/60 lei/km), while for the super-comfort categories – by 0.22 lei per km (up to 0.70 lei/km) as of January 1, 2021.

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