Starting from this Monday, Tirana’s urban lines will be reduced. The Public Transport Association (PTA) announced the reduction due to financial difficulties and other concerns that the operators of this service have faced recently, hence leading to transportation vehicles for all urban city lines being reduced.
“Despite our best efforts, operators of urban city lines in Tirana have encountered significant difficulties in maintaining the operation of public transport services at full capacity. We have diligently tried to address these issues by seeking numerous opportunities for constructive dialogue with the responsible bodies, especially with the office of the Mayor of Tirana. We have raised our concerns, discussed the problems our services face and presented possible solutions, but unfortunately, no preventive measures or responses have been taken to mitigate the situation,” said Public Transport Association’s representatives to media.
They claim that responsible bodies have shown a lack of cooperation, that would have been key to solving this problem. Therefore, the Public Transport Association urgently demands constructive and meaningful dialogue with the responsible bodies to address the latest concerns.
“Only through collaborative efforts and a unified approach can we ensure the smooth operation of public transport in Tirana,” claims the association.
They have sought out the media’s support to further highlight this problem’s importance to the daily life of citizens.
“We kindly request the media’s support in raising awareness of the current situation our public transport services face. Emphasizing the urgency of the issue, we hope to gain the attention of relevant authorities to engage in productive discussions and take the necessary steps to solve the issues at hand. We remain hopeful that with quick actions and collective efforts, we can overcome these obstacles and restore the full functioning of public transport in Tirana for the benefit of our citizens,” the announcement states.
However, Mayor Erion Veliaj countered the association, while stressing that “anyone who does not come to work today will automatically lose their license”.
Veliaj called the news on the reduction of urban lines in Tirana as “a disloyalty to the citizens, especially in a period of very high temperatures”.
“Today we had an unfair and dishonest ultimatum from all public transport associations of Tirana. When someone gives you an ultimatum in a temperature of 40 degrees, of course you can only respond in the same way. My promise is: Anyone who doesn’t come to work today will automatically lose their license. It seems to me that by this hour everyone has gone to work, but my invitation is that, in 2023, this is not the way to go forward. It does not move forward with ultimatums. Not at least with this mayor and this Municipality of Tirana. It is not done in disloyalty, on a weekend between July and August, it is not done in a city that, in fact, is the only one that subsidizes public transport, that also pays for students who travel for free, that has compensated both the oil and the fuel for the operators,” said Veliaj.
The Mayor of Tirana added that the capital’s public transport line will soon be put into operation.
“We can compensate what is actually in the state invoices and in the reports that are made to the Municipality of Tirana and the financial institutions of the Republic of Albania. Any other invoice, which is imaginary, or which happens in the dark, for us, there is no way to justify it. So, the requirement for operators is formalization! Of course, I will use the lesson I learned this weekend to go even faster with a public line and the construction of a public transport authority. However, I believe that it was dishonest for the Municipality of Tirana to be blackmailed in such a way, while we have been proving for 8 years that no one can blackmail the Municipality of Tirana,” Veliaj further stated.
