The age limit for children's tourist buses may be lifted. Deputy Prime Minister Olga Golodets has issued this order to the Ministry of Transport, Interfax-Tourism reports, citing Irina Tyurina, press secretary for the Russian Union of Travel Industry (RUTI).
"Deputy Prime Minister Olga Golodets signed a protocol instructing the Ministry of Transport, together with the Ministry of Industry and Trade and the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation, to submit to the government by June 1 a regulatory legal act eliminating the ban on the use of children's tourist buses over 10 years old," she said.
Previously, the Russian government postponed the entry into force of the rule establishing the age limit for buses transporting groups of children to July 1, 2018.
According to I. Tyurina, over the past three years, there have been no accidents involving buses older than 10 years due to breakdowns en route. This suggests that the rule is more likely to lobby for the interests of the auto industry than to ensure children's safety, the RST press secretary added.
"We've tried to convince the authorities at all levels that the tourism industry is extremely interested in transportation safety, but this depends not on the year of manufacture of the buses, but on their proper use. The ban must be lifted, and the focus must be on producing high-quality, affordable domestic vehicles in sufficient quantities," said Olga Sanaeva, Vice President and Head of the Regional Council of the Russian Union of Travel Industry (RST).
As I. Tyurina noted, there are other provisions in the rules for transporting children's groups that require cancellation or modification, such as the mandatory provision of packed lunches when transporting children for more than three hours. This makes transporting children more expensive, and with such a long journey, children are often fed hot meals.
It was previously reported that the government had limited the age of buses used for children's transportation to 10 years following a series of high-profile accidents. However, this age limit was repeatedly postponed due to repeated protests from the tourism industry. According to the tourism industry, Russia does not have a sufficient number of "new" buses, meaning that removing buses older than 10 years from the market would lead to a collapse of children's excursion tourism and school group transportation in general, regardless of purpose.
Source: trn-news.ru