Ticket punching experiment in trolleybuses fails

After ticket punches had been used in trolleybuses running on three routes in the capital city during three months, the Economic Board of the Chisinau Trolleybus Company decided to withdraw them and return to the old method of collecting fares, the company's head Gheorghe Morgoci has told Info-Prim Neo. According to Morgoci, the punching method was abandoned because thew revenues fell by 10%. “We analyzed the situation and decided that conductors will again work in the given trolleybuses,” he stated. Gheorghe Morgoci said a modernized fare collection system may be introduced in 2012 as the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development is expected to finance the implementation of a new system using plastic cards and automated ticket validating machines. The pilot project was implemented in about 20 trolleybuses running on routes No. 3, 7 and 20. The passengers bought tickets from the driver and then perforated them with the help of ticket punchers. The experiment started in November.