Ukraine closes 280 int'l bus routes in course of verification

MOSCOW. Aug 9 (Interfax) - The Ukrainian Ministry for Communities, Territories and Infrastructure Development has announced the beginning of reforms in cross-border bus services and verification of the existent bus routes, Ukrainian media said with the reference to the ministry's press service.

"The ministry is initiating extensive transformations in cross-border bus services. The first step is the verification of all international routes in order to update their list," the media quoted Deputy Minister Sergei Derkach as saying.

"We will thus see the real state of affairs in transportation and will be able to plan operation of the eQueue [electronic border crossing queue] cross-border us service," Derkach said.

The respective commission has closed 280 cross-border bus routes, including 140 to Russia and Poland each, among them 118 closed without permission of Poland and 22 closed at the request of carriers, he said.

Following the verification of routes to Poland, the same will be done to routes to other countries, Derkach said.

"Verification of all routes will allow the market to expand. Whenever a certain route exists only on paper, another carrier is unable to open the same route and provide its services," he said.