Road Administration tells Superbus «no»

Photo: Postimees

Road Administration declined lion's share of line permits sought by budget bus company Superbus eager to enter Estonian market as local companies already cover the routes and times desired.  

«Road Administration, having examined our application, sent it back today and it reads that we will not be awarder line permit as the departure times are covered by other carriers,» SuperBus.com CEO Lauri Helke said yesterday. «This is illegal and in violation of EU rules,» he added.

Representing the company, lawyer Merit Lind said they received the minutes from Friday half an hour before meeting economy/infrastructure minister Kristen Michal on Tuesday, and are therefore unable to comment in details. «But having taken a brief look – most of the applications have been rejected,» said Ms Lind.

Mr Helke said they have two weeks to reply. Meanwhile, he said, Road Administration would be asking for opinions of the competitors. «It seems strange to me, as the market is supposed to be open already,» said Mr Helke. He said they would surely object.

Mr Helke said Estonia has problems both with Public Transport Act and principles of issuing line permits. «The new Public Transport Act concept is very clear – the market must be opened –, but we want to familiarise ourselves with the new discretionary principles as we want to know how the law is interpreted,» said Mr Helke, adding they were able to familiarise themselves with the new discretionary principles sent in April, but have not been shown the latest version. «What we have been shown does not remove the restrictions to entry into market at all,» said Mr Helke.

Under the Superbus trademark, Bus Transport Holding OÜ wants to open lines from Tallinn to Pärnu, Narva and Tartu. Pursuant to Public Transport Act, these lines must have a minimum of 30 minutes between two departures. The new wording of the Act enters into force on October 1st and contains no time limit.

According to Road Administration public transport department head Kirke Williamson, the current law says 30 minutes minimum must be between two departures at Tallinn-Tartu line. «Should some carrier have another bus between the 10 am and 10:30 am departures, at 10:15 am say, it is only possible in case buses are overcrowded,» she explained. By being overcrowded, she means that during three months the buses before and after must have been filled over 75 percent on average. To verify that, inquiry will be presented to the company operating the buses before and after.

To bring an example: Bus Transport Holding OÜ applied for a Tallinn-Pärnu departure at 9.45 am, preceded by AS Lux Ekspress Estonia departure at 9.30 am (57 percent of seats filled as three last months’ average) and followed by AS GoBus departure at 10 o’clock (35 percent).

The official admitted that she knows of no instance of competitors having confirmed their buses being overcrowded, so as to have a rival stuck in between. Though the limit is in place for years, Ms Williamson said the bus companies are still submitting applications violating the rule. «They do know, but they do try,» said the official.

Indeed, Superbus isn’t the only company to have a line permit application denied this year due to others having existing departures at the same time.

For instance, at the end of July Lux Express missed a permit to have a bus travelling the Tallinn-Pärnu and Tallinn-Kuresaare lines, as the departure times would have coincided with such already in operation.