Chisinau councilman urges city authorities to oppose ban on converted passenger minibuses

Councillor Oleg Cernei of Moldova Noastra Alliance Party recommends that city authorities suspend the enforcement of the law banning converted cargo vans from public transport, Info-Prim Neo reports. Speaking at today’s meeting of the Chisinau City Council, Oleg Cernei gave the example of the Gagauz authorities, which, as he claimed, refused to enforce the given law. The councillor said the exclusion of the reequipped minibuses from the city’s routes would leave the municipality unable to provide adequate public transport services, since the city is supposed to lose 500 more converted minibuses after 1 January 2008, when the next stage of the law takes effect. Oleg Cernei asked the city transport department to identify new minibus routes and consider holding a new tender to redistribute them, as there are some carriers today that operate 100-120 routes, Cernei said. At present, roughly 1,600 minibuses provide transport services to Chisinau residents. Since the Government introduced the ban on reequipped vans in August 2006, some 400 units have been removed from circulation in Chisinau alone. Private carriers have repeatedly protested against the ban, arguing that the converted cargo vans are as safe as standard passenger minibuses, but the Government remained resolute.