Some of them claim they do not have the means to find out about international bus delays and cannot inform passengers, others said that posting additional information on the website may require hiring a separate person, so they promise to raise the entrance fee to the station.
The Ministry of Transport has prepared amendments to the Code of Administrative Offenses, proposing to warn or fine station or their managers from 70 to 140 euros for not having a website or not publishing relevant information for passengers and carriers about station operations, schedules, and their changes.
Such amendments to the code will be considered by the Government and approved by the Seimas.
The ministry emphasized to BNS that the proposed sanctions are intended for specific, objectively measurable violations: when there is no website or when mandatory information is not published on it. It also stated that it does not collect statistics on bus station websites.
“Market supervision and assessment of possible violations are carried out by the Lithuanian Transport Safety Administration (LTSA – BNS) according to competence. The proposed amendments would allow reacting in cases where it is found that mandatory information for passengers is not published or is provided improperly,” the comment said.
LTSA representative Kristijonas Ražickas told BNS that the institution has not conducted investigations on this issue so far.
The head of the Lithuanian Passenger Transport Association (LKVA), Gintaras Nakutis, told BNS that there are no bus stations in Lithuania without a website: “They provide all the information needed. There are no problems, you can access information about the operations of all bus stations online.”
According to him, when agreeing on the proposals for fines, it was agreed that they would be imposed on the head of the station or the company managing it.
“We raised the issue that the manager of the station, not the station itself, should have the website. It was agreed that the station itself must have its own website or the manager. They all have these things. We do not see a problem here,” G. Nakutis explained to BNS.
The head of Šiauliai bus station, Toma Lentinienė, emphasized to BNS that carriers should also take responsibility.
“Naturally, there must be control, but that control should be systematic for both sides, not only for stations but also for carriers. They put the responsibility on us to report that they are not running, to provide real-time information, but if the carrier does not arrive, they are not punished. There should be certain sanctions for carriers as well,” the station director said.
According to her, most complaints are about international routes, which are uncontrolled: “They go as they want (…). Breakdowns, border delays, all sorts of things happen.”
Meanwhile, the new manager of Anykščiai bus station, which does not have a website, the head of the Visaginas company Transport Center, Igoris Fedorivas, said he does not yet know whether a separate website will be created or if the information will be posted on the company’s page.
He said it was the first time he heard that a bus station must have a website: “Wow, first time I hear that!”
According to him, such a requirement will increase the entrance fees to the station because an additional employee will need to be hired.
Read more The qualifying hurdle for Visockaite was too high
“Only now will we have to somehow raise the fees because there will need to be a person who will make the changes. If the entrance to the station is currently four euros, I think that if we have to hire one more person, I will calculate how much it costs and add it to the entrance fee,” said the head of the company managing the station.
Information about the operation and routes of Ignalina bus station is published on the Visaginas Tourism Development Center website. The head of the Transport Department of Ignalina Housing Management, which manages the station, Jonas Sieliūnas, told BNS that the information will soon also appear on the company’s website.
“Currently, a project of Ignalina Housing Management is underway to review schedules and some kind of editing may be done. So everything is more or less in order with the schedules, we do not have tickets because we only operate within the district. We do not have intercity or international routes,” J. Sieliūnas said.
However, he emphasized that information about other routes is published if the carrier provides it: “How can a bus station be responsible for an international or intercity route, delays, no-shows if I do not know, if that information was not provided to me?”
Kryžkalnis bus station, from which 32 routes depart, also does not have its own website. It is managed by the cooperative company “Raseinių prekyba,” which also does not have its own website.
The director of “Raseinių prekyba,” Aida Janušaitienė, told BNS that the dispatcher working at the station provides all information about routes live or by phone. She said she had not received a single complaint about lack of information.
“We have a dispatcher who always answers. He has a schedule, consults, advises people on which buses to take, at what time. If the bus schedule changes, he immediately changes everything on the boards. It has been like this so far. People always find the dispatcher online. No problem with the website has been raised. We will create a website soon for everyone’s convenience. If needed, we will definitely have one,” A. Janušaitienė explained to BNS.
According to her, very few buses stop at Kryžkalnis.
According to LTSA data, there are currently 50 bus stations operating in Lithuania; they belong either to private small or large carriers or to municipalities or private companies. The major carrier “Kautra” manages six stations – in Prienai, Vilkaviškis, Neringa, Kaunas, Druskininkai, Alytus. “Busturas” – in Šiauliai, and in Panevėžys – the Long-Distance Passenger Transport Company.
Birštonas, Elektrėnai, Kaišiadorys, Kalvarija, Kazlų Rūda, and Pagėgiai municipalities do not have bus stations. According to G. Nakutis, there are “simple stops” there.
Information about the operation and routes of Ignalina station is on the website of the manager Ignalina Housing Management. Radviliškis station, managed by Radviliškis Bus Park, has its own website where it publishes routes and other information.
Information about routes at Lazdijai and Rietavas stations is published on the municipalities’ websites. Lazdijai Bus Park does not have its own website.
Information about Visaginas bus station is provided by the Visaginas Recreation Services Center, which manages it.
