Fighting windmills or real steps to eliminate the practice of so-called owners of route lines

ArmInfo. Soon, a program for creating a single route network will be approved in Armenia. The Minister of Transport, Communications and Information Technologies of Armenia Vahan Martirosyan stated this at a press conference on September 26.

The minister reminded that earlier the Armenian government approved the technical specification for the republican transport network. This, as pointed out by Martirosyan, means the creation of an intra- republican transport network - Interregional and intercity, which will serve the routes that were previously outside the transport service.  Based on the results of studies of the Ministry of Transport, 220 such communities were identified, 40% of which will be included in the network being created.

In addition, the "single ticket" system will be introduced, the practice of the so-called owners of route lines will disappear by creating a single operator serving the entire transport network. The program will soon be tested in one of the regions of the republic, at this stage the legal side of the issue is being considered.

Earlier, the head of the Ministry of Transport, presenting the concept of the program, said that a single network across the region means the presence of one operator that will serve all routes, including those that today are not profitable both in terms of road quality and low level of passenger traffic, - the minister said.  As for the timing of the implementation of the program, the minister said, agreements have been signed with the transport companies servicing the routes. "Only after the completion of the terms prescribed in the contracts, we can talk about the changes," - said the Minister. At the same time, as the head of the Ministry of Transport informed, a tender for the operator will soon be announced, in which everyone can participate. According to Vahan Martirosyan, in the process of planned reforms, it is also planned to increase the level of control over the sphere. "At this stage, a transport management system is being developed that will allow monitoring through the online monitor the traffic and the timetable for the traffic," the minister explained.