Ministry of Transport, Information Technology and Communications

Representatives of the bus industry discussed with the Minister of Transport, Information technology and Communications Ivaylo Moskovski the pressing problems in the sector. Minister Moskovski undertook immediate actions to resolve two of the issues falling within the competence of the Ministry.

Still next week will be initiated the modification of the Republican transport scheme, said Minister Ivaylo Moskovski. There will be elaborated entirely new principles and criteria for determining the route schedules and the times of departure and arrival. According to him, the main task is to avoid existing points of conflict, thereby the Republican transport scheme will be more effective for both carriers and residents of all settlements. The criteria will be consistent with the schedule of the trains, he added. The Minister said that the deadline he has set for the administration for the elaboration of the scheme is three months. He recalled that last year at the Bulgarian Academy of Science was developed a mathematical model related to the national transport network that will be used when elaborating the new one.

The second issue within the competence of MTITC, which Minister Ivaylo Moskovski took immediate action to resolve, was the establishment of a Categorization of bus terminals and the introduction of Methodology for the pricing of their services. The Minister ordered the immediate establishment of an expert team, with the participation of representatives of the industry, which within three months should complete the task. Minister Moskovski said that during today's meeting has been discussed the idea to divide bus terminals into three categories which will serve to define the threshold of pricing. According to the industry at the moment the prices for the use of bus terminal services are formed freely, regardless of the size of the settlement and the passenger flow, but under the law they are required to stop at bus terminals or bus stops.

The industry raised also issues that are not within the competence of the Ministry, as the fight against illegal transportation of passenger by vehicles with up to 8+1 seats; payment of compensations and subsidies for carriers; the Toll system and the pricing of vignette stickers and lack of qualified professional drivers. Considering these issues Minister Ivaylo Moskovski promised to send today a letter to Deputy Prime Ministers Ivaylo Kalfin and Rumyana Bachvarova, as well as to the Ministers Vladislav Goranov and Lilyana Pavlova to organize a joint meeting with the carriers for discussion of special measures and solutions.