Rise of the fare of bus service in Yerevan directly impacts on the appetite of the owners of bus service in the marzes. A bad example is infectious, accordingly, it will get circulated through the whole territory of Armenia according to the owners. Due to some rumors, fares of Armavir marz intercommunity and interurban bus service will be increased too.
The fare should not be an end in itself and must be implemented within the limits of logic. Hence, rise in prices should be carried out, first, when the sector does not ensure profit and further activity of which is at risk. Second, there is a need of significant investments to improve the quality of service. Therefore, which of these factors led to the review and increase in the fares of bus service of the capital city, the citizens do not know thus go on hiking.
To say that prices of gas and electricity or inflation has turned the sector into a non-profit one, the society will not conceive and believe, because if the Municipality declares a contest now for serving the interurban bus service and sets a fare of 100 AMD, there will not be lack of participatants in the contest. On the contrary, they will search for different relatives and offer bribes only to win the contest and serve the bus service at 100 AMD.
To say that dramatical increase of service quality was the reason of the rise in the fares will make the society laugh. Whereas the society can not imagine that the appearance of standing like a chess horse in the mini buses is disappeared, that the buses arrive due to the fixed schedule, buses do not remind you of scrap metal, seats are clean and comfortable, the driver is not dependent on the number of passengers and does not stop the bus before every hand, special devices are launched and the payment is made through the cards so the passengers do not have to wait for the driver to give the change of 5 thousand AMD, the driver is tidy dressed and shaved, the Department of Transportation of Municipality sets a daily control in order to rule over the situation.
Now let us approach the issue from a legal perspective, for example, why a passenger passing 2 stops would pay as much money as the one passing 10-15 stops, why there are not equal conditions for all passengers. Maybe it does not matter for the passenger in case of 100 AMD, but in parallel with the increase in the fares, the issues are becoming urgent.
Owners of the bus service in the marz will soon follow the example of the capital city, and, by the way, bus service owners of the marz are not accidental ones and have necessary source of influence to review the fares, and finally, they are none the worse than the capital ones.
We can only hope that in the marzes after the increase in the fares of bus service they will not make the passengers get off the bus to charge it with gas or in case of empty passengers’ seats the bus will go on driving, and finally, serving the society by adjusted buses will be a great luxury for the marzes.