The chair of the Public Transportation Union, Rixhin Qosja, told Euronews Albania that the sector has plunged into a crisis in the past two years and has not received any aid by the state.<\/p>\n
He claims that the union has informed relevant institutions, including the municipality and the transportation ministry, but to no avail.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur problems began during the pandemic. For about two years, we haven\u2019t had any concrete response on what will happen to public transportation and what types of aid are we going to get\u201d, says the union\u2019s chair.<\/p>\n
He also adds that rising prices are another challenge.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re not the type of sector that can increase the price, it is dictated by someone else. We are facing increasing prices like all other sectors\u201d, Qoshja said.<\/p>\n
According to him, the Municipality of Tirana has breached the contract which prescribes the number of buses at the disposal, as well as their time schedule.<\/p>\n
Euronews Albania journalists pointed out to Qoshja a clause in the contract that requires claims that the contract has not only been breached on the side of the union.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe least they could do is open up a special route, then demand from the operators to arrive on schedule. When the infrastructure doesn\u2019t exist, it is impossible to arrive on time. And we get penalized for that\u201d, said the chair of Public Transportation Union.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe least they could do is open up a special route, then demand from the operators to arrive on schedule. When the infrastructure doesn\u2019t exist, it is impossible to arrive on time. And we get penalized for that\u201d, said the chair of Public Transportation Union.<\/p>\n
In terms of the moral responsibility for not informing daily commuters ahead for reducing the number of buses by half, Qoshja dodged the responsibility by saying that they had informed relevant authorities.<\/p>\n
\nThe Public Transportation Union has decided to cut down by half the number of \ud83d\ude8cat disposal in a sign of protest of what they claim \u201cunbearable oil prices\u201d while negotiations are underway with the government. However, the decision has led to chaos & long queues at bus stations pic.twitter.com\/C3pSGTy1Jb<\/a><\/p>\n
— Euronews Albania (@EuronewsAlbania) October 19, 2021<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n