Before the announcement regarding the procedure for trams, General Mayor Ciprian Ciucu asked Bucharest residents to tolerate the disruption caused by several construction sites opened simultaneously to modernize tram lines, arguing that the works were necessary due to the deterioration of the infrastructure and certain deadlines imposed by funders/approvals. The mayor also cited financial stakes amounting to billions of lei for renewal projects and warned that delays could lead to the loss of funding.
In the same context, Ciucu also announced funding or negotiations for public transport: the Capital received 87.44 million euros to modernize the STB fleet (including the purchase of new vehicles), and the mayor subsequently requested a loan of up to 350 million euros from the EBRD for modernization, a program estimated at 1.65 billion euros.
At the same time, STB was at the center of legal proceedings: after the Bucharest Tribunal had previously rejected a request to enter insolvency proceedings due to a lack of documents, Ciucu said that the company had submitted a new request, accompanied by verified documents, arguing that STB's financial situation was serious enough to potentially affect the City Hall's budget as well.
