Don't even think about privatizing the motor transport in Sofia! With these words, Ivan Takov, chairman of the group of the Local Coalition "BSP for Bulgaria" and the Standing Committee on Transport and Road Safety, addressed the municipal councilors from "Blue Sofia" in the SOS. His warning was regarding a report by Vili Lilkov, Ivan Sotirov and Ivaylo Yonkov, which entered the agenda of today's session with a negative opinion from the committees. In it, the three right-wing councilors propose the creation of a working group to develop a plan for the privatization and concession of public transport in Sofia.
"I don't know why this report was included in the session's agenda at all, after we rejected it in the transport committee. It didn't pass the economy and property committee either, commented Ivan Takov. - I thought that the top privatizers this term in the SOS were only three, but it turned out that there were more, which is worrying".
Ivan Takov explained that the claims of municipal councilors about billions of debts of the capital's public transport show extreme incompetence. "We are all aware that the capital's public transport operates within an economic framework that we, the municipal councilors, have set for it," he explained. - The report proposed by "Blue Sofia" is extremely poorly prepared, completely meaningless and unnecessary. Let me remind you that all of us, in the SOS, voted for one billion leva to replace the rolling stock of ground transport - buses, trolleybuses and trams. We also voted to allocate funds to improve working conditions in municipal transport companies. And I must note that Mayor Terziev has already allocated part of these funds. Most municipal councilors also supported an increase in the salaries of those working in public transport. All of these actions of ours are an indicator that we have united around our common desire to revive the Sofia public transport, which is the circulatory system of Sofia. The rest is empty talk and I wonder what exactly they are aiming for. If anyone thinks that the Sofia Municipality will buy new buses and give them to private companies to operate them - that would be complete madness.