YEREVAN. – The [public bus] route owners are terrorizing the taxi drivers in Armenia’s Abovyan city, Yerkir daily writes. “Before, there were inner-city routes whose fare was 50 drams (13 cents US). Approximately 1 year ago, they were replaced by Bogdan model buses and the fare became 100 drams (26 cents), in the case when the distance between one end of the city to the other is just about 3 [bus] stops of Yerevan. Immediately after the import of the buses, the Abovyan-Yerevan microbuses were prohibited to enter the city and collect passengers. Now the buses transfer the passengers to the bus terminal, from where they go to Yerevan by spending money yet again.    

At first, the citizens were reconciled with this situation, and, on many occasions, 4 passengers who lived on the same street were joining, paying 100 drams each to the taxi driver, and arriving home. Now, according to our information, the taxi drivers are being removed from the bus terminal, so that the residents could only use De Lux company’s taxis and buses, which belong to Abovyan’s mayor Karapet Guloyan.       

And yesterday [Friday], the route owners forced the taxi drivers not to pick up more than 1 person, and, if they were, to find out whether it is a family, so that the route owners would not lack passengers,” Yerkir daily writes.