The persons who planned a trip by bus or minibus for February 23 risk not reaching the destination. The transport operators didn’t give up the protest set for this day. Contacted by IPN for details, the head of the Employers Association of Road Transport Carriers Oleg Alexa said that over 90% of the buses and minibuses in the country, including 2/3 of the private transport in the municipality of Chisinau, will not run on routes on February 23, but will be back on routes on February 24. If the carriers do not reach an agreement with the authorities, new protests will be mounted.
The carriers announced the protest after the National Extraordinary Public Health Commission on February 15 decided to limit the number of passengers in the railway and road municipal, district and inter-district transport to 50% of the transportation capacity.
Oleg Alexa said the carriers would have cancelled the protest if the authorities had annulled their restriction. The Commission only suspended the application of this restriction until February 28. If a violation of the imposed norms is identified in the period, the one that committed the violation should be penalized, not the whole sector.
Until February 28 inclusive, checks will be carried out to see how the road transport operators comply with the agreed conditions and how the passengers, drivers and operators obey the epidemiological measures. If the conditions are not met, the planned restriction will be introduced.
