MOSCOW, February 9. / TASS /. The State Duma on Tuesday adopted in the second - main - reading a bill that prohibits the disembarkation of passengers under 16 years of age from public transport who have not paid their fare.
The necessary changes are made to the charter of road transport and urban land electric transport, the initiative was made by the government. "There have been cases when children who did not have money to pay for travel were kicked out of the bus in the cold, they were forced to walk for several kilometers. It is unacceptable for a child who travels alone, without adults, to be dropped from public transport. This can lead to tragedy." - Speaker of the State Duma Vyacheslav Volodin told reporters.
According to him, the adoption of this law "will eliminate such situations and ensure the safety of children."
As Vladimir Sinyagovsky, a member of the Duma Committee on Transport and Construction, one of the authors of the amendments to the second reading of the bill, noted in an interview with a TASS correspondent, the current version of the charter formally allows people under 16 years of age to disembark if they did not pay for the fare and no one accompanied them. "The authors of the project propose to prohibit the landing of children under 16 years of age who are in transport unaccompanied by adults," the deputy explained, noting that such a measure should be extended to pensioners, disabled people and pregnant women.
In addition, the amendments change the procedure for control and confirmation of payment for travel in public transport. "Today it is regulated exclusively by federal rules and does not take into account local specifics. The government proposes to allow the regions to independently introduce the procedure for controlling the payment of fares," Sinyagovsky said. The deputy believes that this will provide an opportunity for a differentiated approach to solving the problem and expand the powers of local authorities. So, according to the text, when traveling along regular routes in urban, suburban and intercity traffic established within the boundaries of one constituent entity of the Russian Federation, the procedure for confirming payment for travel or the right to reduced travel is regulated by a regulatory legal act of the region.
According to the document, if the passenger did not show the ticket and decided to leave the transport, then the payment is charged for travel to the nearest stop from the point of departure. If it was not possible to determine the place of its landing, then the starting point of the route is taken into account.