Road transferor operators in Moldova will suspend the national regular routes for three days, on February 7, 8 and 9, in protest, the Employers Association of Road Transport Operators has said.

“The Ministry of Infrastructure and Regional Development didn’t react to operators’ demands stipulated in the open letter of January 22, 2022. It didn’t review the draft order on the approval of tariffs. It didn’t renounce the illegal mechanism for instituting a new permissive document – the local councilors’ consent to increase fares – and didn’t present real calculations of the tariffs for transport services. It didn’t approve the document by which to set the tariff for bus station services and didn’t abandon support for illegal schemes in the transport sector. Even if the Ministry announced that the dialogue remains the way for finding a solution supported by both of the sides, no meeting with operators was set,” says a statement that is quoted by IPN.

The statement also says that the routes will be resumed on February 10, 2022. The Ministry’s refusal to comply with the legal framework endangers passenger transportation and creates preconditions for abandoning routes for an indefinite period of time. After February 10, the Employers Association of Road Transport Operators will announce its decisions concerning tariffs.

Transport operators, in a letter to the Ministry of Infrastructure and Regional Development, asked to provide real calculations of the tariffs for transport services and bus station services. The letter says that for the fourth month already, the operators that serve regular national routes cannot reach a compromise with the Ministry as to the size of the tariffs for transport services and bus station services. In a reaction, the Ministry said the message of a narrow group of operators that exert public pressure before a final decision about the tariffs for passenger transportation by district and inter-district routes is to be taken is unconstructive.