Urban Bus Company administration say ticket collectors should be removed from routes

About 3% of the losses sustained by the Urban Bus Company (UBC) result from the fact that the collectors do not give tickets to the passengers, said the company’s director Iacob Capcelea. He considers that the ticket collectors should be removed from routes. He made such statements at the meeting of the Chisinau Municipal Council of November 28, when the councillors approved the allocation of an additional 2.6 million lei to the UBC. The money will be used for paying salaries to the employees for October. According to Iacob Capcelea, the largest losses yet are generated by the difference between the fare paid and the real cost of the ticket. The urban Company works on a charge of 0.15 lei for a kilometre of suburban route, while the Ministry of Transport adopted a tariff of 0.34 lei per kilometre of suburban route and of 0.45 lei per kilometre of interurban route after the last rise in fuel prices. The uncovered losses of the company resulting from the transportation of passengers that enjoy concessions and from the difference in the tariff and the cost price of the ticket totalled about 61.5 million lei in 2006. Capcelea stressed that the funds allocated from the municipal budget cover only 48.3% of the company’s losses. The Company’s accounts payable to suppliers add up to 11.6 million lei. Iacob Capcelea said that about 10 million lei will be saved each year if the nominative compensation system is replaced by a system based on categories. Unaffiliated councillor Mihai Severovan, who represented the National Liberal Party, said that the company should be taken over by a private business. He said that the UBC each year generates losses of about 100 million lei. This money could be redirected to education and healthcare. In many states, the public transport belongs to private companies, Mihai Severovan said. Currently, the Urban Bus Company is autonomous, being partly subsidized from the municipal budget.