Public transportation in Chisinau cashes in 3-4 million lei daily, half of it under the counter. The Municipality's proposals to reorganize the circulation of minibuses will favor some operators, close to the clan that governs the city, over others. As with other initiatives in recent years, this one, which can't be called a reform, will be poorly implemented. The opinion was voiced by expert in local public administration Mihai Roscovan, former municipal councilor and university professor of transport management.
Roscovan told IPN that this was nothing but “a redistribution of money flows by the mafia clans that control this sector”. These methods copy each other and the municipal administration has had such “gradual reforms” in other fields, such as outdoor advertising. Several companies had to restrain their activity or were even eliminated from the advertising market over the last five years. Their place was taken by a new company, closer to the leadership of the capital, accused Roscovan.
In his opinion, the changes to the minibus routes will affect, first of all, the city dwellers who won't know how to reach their destinations with these new routes. In order to get from home to work and back, some will have to change several minibuses and pay 2-3 times more than now. Others will have to use taxis or their own cars, which will lead to an increase of the traffic flow and all its consequences.
“It's puzzling that these initiatives haven't been discussed and approved by the deliberative body, the Chisinau Municipal Council. Even during the pre-Liberal administration such reforms were discussed not only with local elected officials, but with civil society and others actors in the concerned field, not to speak about the lack of coordination with other municipal services such as the police and the suburban town halls. Besides, these initiatives are conflicting with the General Urban Plan, the legislation on the principles of entrepreneurial activity (decisional transparency, predictability, impact analysis, etc.), and the Strategy for the development of urban transportation, the draft version of which is collecting dust in the City Hall”, added Roscovan.
Mihai Reus, administrator of several minibus route, told IPN that because of the cancellation of routes 110 and 104, about 200 drivers will lose their jobs and won't be employed by other route administrators, who face the same problems. “We urge the authorities to consider the opinions of passengers as well as of the drivers who will become unemployed. We discussed with the transportation division to propose changes in order to be ready for September 1 and avoid a collapse of public transportation”, said Reus.
Administrator of routes 136, 165 and 175, Veaceslav Gaina thinks that the changes to minibus routes will affect, first of all, the passengers who will have to pay three times more to reach their destinations. Because of shorter routes, the administrator says he will have to fire 30% of drivers. He added that he would submit proposals regarding the route changes to the transportation division no later than August 21 to soften the impact on passengers.
Nine minibus routes have been canceled by the City Hall “because of the irrational overlapping of minibus routes with bus and trolleybus ones”. Over 50 other routes have been modified and the changes will be applied in several steps, on August 25, September 6 and 16. Two bus routes will be restored: no. 19 and 26, connecting sectors Rascani and Botanica. The authorities announced that they would supplement public transportation in Chisinau with 50 trolleybuses and 50 buses.
People who have suggestions for the optimization of minibus routes can call the public transportation and roads division at (022) 20-46-61,(022) 20-46-62 and (022) 20-46-80 or send an e-mail to: dirtrans@mail.md or drp@pmc.md. The Municipality will examine all the requests from community, except those for minibuses in the center zone of the city or on major streets.
