Varna is facing a problem that has been plaguing its residents for years - vandalism in public transport. In recent months, there has been a boom in such incidents, which are almost daily occurrences, reports Nova TV.
Since the beginning of last summer, hundreds of cases have been registered, with the attacks mainly on the material base. There are also many cases in which passengers display aggressive behavior against controllers and drivers.
Stoyan Stoyanov is a driver in “Public Transport” - Varna with over 40 years of experience. He has repeatedly encountered aggression from passengers. He tells of an incident in which his bus window was broken due to a scandal between a controller and a passenger without a ticket. According to him, to cope with such tension, “you need to have nerves like ship's ropes”.
Another long-time driver in the seaside capital is Nedelcho Serbezov. He also confirms the daily verbal and physical abuse: “They pick on us. They swear at us, insult us, jump into a fight”. He adds that at the end of his shift he often finds serious damage to the buses, including how someone has defecated on the seats.
The aggressive behavior of passengers can lead to accidents, endangering the lives and health of everyone.
The director of “City Transport” - Varna Nikolay Antonov emphasized that a large percentage of the vandalism is the work of children and teenagers between the ages of 15 and 17. He warned that they do “quite dangerous things”, such as turning the cranes to open the doors during movement, which is extremely dangerous.
Almost daily, passengers also damage the devices of the automated ticket system. Georgi Kiryakov, director of the OP “TASRUD”, reported hundreds of registered damages to validators and ticket vending machines from the summer of last year to the present. Despite the efforts of the teams for quick removal, the reserve resource and the possibilities for replacement were exhausted. The costs of restoring the ticket system amounted to tens, even hundreds of thousands of leva.
Over the past year, the Ministry of Interior has investigated a total of 145 reports of damaged ticket validation devices, with the total number of damaged devices being 412. 23 attacks on drivers have also been registered, of which 7 have been solved and 7 people have been detained.
Kiryakov explained that the increased control over compliance with the public transport ordinance in Varna, introduced last summer, has led to daily conflict situations with irregular passengers. “TASRUD” calls on citizens to be more responsible, more tolerant of the ticket system and of controls on the regularity of passengers.
Despite the aggression and low salaries, drivers like Nedelcho Serbezov remain responsible for their profession. He hopes for better conditions and a salary increase, like his colleagues in Sofia, but also notes: “Today's youth only crush”.