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When it comes to intercity traffic, the taxi is used ten times more than the train

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Instead of using trains and buses as it is the case in Europe, Macedonia is a rare example where the taxi transportation is slowly becoming the dominant means of transportation in the intercity trips. The data provided by the State Statistics Bureau for 2019 shows that trains and buses are becoming less attractive for the passengers and therefore the taxi drivers are taking over the traffic between cities.

Lasti year there were 5,102,000 taxi rides in the intercity traffic. Intercity bus rides, on the other hand ammount to 5,827,000 passengers, and there were 549.000 passengers that have used railway transportation. The statistical data for the past decade indicate that taxi rides between cities ammount to between 2 and 4 million passengers annually, and it had increased drastically during 2018 and 2019.

The increased trust in the taxi transportation correlates with the continuous decrease of the number of passenger trains in the domestic railway traffic, including also the decline of the quality of bus transportation. Due to the undesirable condition of the railway stock and the under-developed infrastructure, the passengers are forced to choose between bus and taxi transportation. Last year, there was a bus accident at the village of Laskarci which led to the increase of the passengers’ mistrust towards bus transportation that was also present previously, due to crowded buses on some lines and aged fleets.

On the other hand, the increase of the number of passengers that opt for the taxi transportation contributes for a decrease of the fees, that are gradually becoming competitive to other means of transportation. Taxi drivers are driving the passengers to their final destination and in the shortest amount of time, which is an issue that Meta.mk has written about on several occasions. Taxi ride-sharing in trips between the towns and cities in close proximity is also gaining popularity fast.

Still, this trend in Macedonia is far from the experiences in the EU member countries where the use of public transportation is stimulated.

The taxies transport a fewer passengers, they are more expensive, and the number of transported passengers in one train equals the number of citizens that can travel with dozens of taxi vehicles. As a result, the air pollution increases, traffic jams are becoming more frequent, together with the risk of traffic accidents, while the number of available parking slots in populated areas decreases.

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