Small and remote villages throughout Bulgaria remain cut off due to the lack of public transport and access to services in the big cities.
The trend is deepening as the carriers refuse to allow the bus to carry multiple passengers on the unprofitable route lines, writes bTV. Municipalities do not have the right to subsidize transport companies, as they violate the law.
The vicious circle will be difficult to break, and in order to get to the city, pensioners pay huge sums in fees from their small pensions.
„I am happy that there was a bus, but when they stopped it, it became difficult. Anyone who doesn't have a car like me is at a disadvantage. We have to go for medicine, we have to go to the doctor, and it is very difficult for us.
In emergencies, pensioners use taxis to the city,” says Ruzhka Ignatova. Women cannot carpool and share the costs of the taxi service.
In the neighboring village of Emen, which falls within the scope of the municipality of Veliko Tarnovo, the situation is the same. Since the beginning of this year, residents have been without public transport, completely isolated from communal and health services in Veliko Tarnovo and Pavlikeni.
„Before the New Year, they stopped the bus – from Tarnovo to Pavlikeni, from Pavlikeni to Tarnovo there was a bus in the morning and in the evening, they stopped it, here they said that there were not enough passengers. It was still something, because only old people live there and they have to go for medicine, and now there is nothing to do... There are guest houses, there are many tourists, in the summer it is very lively, foreigners come,” commented Ivanka Atanasova from the village Emen.
At the moment, there are three villages in Pavlikensko without bus transport to the city. The municipal administration makes every effort to ensure the movement of people without private cars to the city.
„The problem is all over Bulgaria – in the small settlements, in the remote from the municipal centers. Unfortunately, the trend is this – every year we announce a public procurement, no bids have been submitted, even after the extension of the term of this procurement. We have made attempts, made estimates for additional bus lines, expansion of the route scheme – part of them to be directly financed by the municipality, we have the analyses, we know how much it will cost us annually, but unfortunately we do not have the right to subsidize commercial private companies, as we fall under the blows of the law on the state budget,” commented Eng. Emanuil Manolov, Mayor of Pavlikeni Municipality.
The municipality is considering creating a bus transport company, such as there are in some Bulgarian cities, and purchasing buses. Although such companies are also at a great loss, they will fulfill social functions of not allowing the inhabitants of small villages to be isolated.