Minibuses will replace buses on narrow streets and will have ticket scanner devices just like tramcars, and subway commuter passes will be usable on buses too. This is how Bucharest’s new public transportation system will look like if the government approves an emergency ordinance that would set up the Metropolitan Transport Authority, ‘Evenimentul Zilei’ informs.
“The new institution will decide what public transport means will be used in Bucharest and their routes. At the same time, we are analyzing the reintroduction of minibuses. Today all minibuses are without license. They will travel on less busy streets and on streets that are less accessible for buses,” Ion Dedu, CEO of Bucharest City Hall’s Office for Transportation, Roads and Traffic Systematization, explained. According to him, minibuses could be reintroduced in the Rahova and Andronache areas. Minibuses stopped serving those areas in 2009 because their routes were overlapping existing bus routes.
“If private transporters start using ticket scanner devices, then protocols will have to be signed in order for them to receive their money at the end of the month and to be integrated into the unified transportation system,” Dedu added.
A subway ride and a bus ride will cost the same after the system is created and the subway, tramcars and minibuses are coordinated by the new institution, Transport Ministry sources stated. The price will be established on the basis of management costs and after an analysis of all public transportation prices, including the price of rides on regional trains around Bucharest, Ministry representatives added.
Moreover, Adrian Crit, director of the Bucharest Autonomous Transportation Administration (RATB), stated that the new Transport Authority was demanded by the IMF and the deadline to set it up is August 2011.
