I. Metshin: “We will not be given subsidies yet, we cannot raise the tariff to 49 rubles”

(KZN.RU, April 16, Ksenia Shvetsova). By 2025, according to calculations of specialists, the number of cars in Kazan per thousand inhabitants will be 350 units, which will lead to 8-9 traffic jams by the Yandex scale. The city authorities see an exit to solve this problem in the priority development of public transport. Aidar Abdulkhakov, the chairman of the Kazan Transport Committee, told at the Business Monday about the proposals of the Moscow Research Institute of Road Transport (MRIRT). They developed a new scheme for the urban passenger transport network.

The MRIRT won the tender announced last year for the development of a new scheme for the urban passenger transport network. Specialists of the Institute highly appreciated the existing route network of Kazan, noting only one major shortcoming: an expensive maintenance. If the metro gets subsidies from the republican budget, the Kazan road carriers work completely in market conditions, often at a loss.

According to the Terms of Reference, the MRIRT was to develop two options of the route network.

The option of the route network close to the existing one, calculated in accordance with the requirements of the federal legislation, requires either an additional 4.5 billion rubles of subsidies per year or an increase of the tariff to 49 rubles. A. Abdulkhakov noted that for today, both these options are not real for the capital of Tatarstan. In the absence of subsidies and the preservation of existing tariffs, a significant change in the route network will be required. In addition, experts believe that the Kazan Metro performs only 15% of its bandwidth. Therefore, the specialists suggested forming routes to the metro station, ensuring its maximum loading.

Another measure proposed by specialists to improve the route system is the reduction of duplicating routes. In this case, the number of bus routes will be reduced, and the number of rolling stock will be halved.

For today, part of the proposals for optimizing the route network has already been adopted.

According to A. Abdulkhakov, today a decision has been made to abandon the implementation of the project developed by Moscow experts. Kazan will maintain the existing route network with minor changes for 5 years.

“The order of the Ministry of Transport on the initial maximum contract price comes into effect on July 1. Therefore, today we are able to hold a tender within the framework of the current legislation, and to maintain the transport network for 5 years without these subsidies and tariffs”, said A.Abdulhakov. “But during this time, we still need to do something”. He also noted that there is a long overdue need in Kazan to increase the fares for transport. “More precisely about new fares can be said by the end of summer but the increase, in any case, will not be so radical”, added A. Abdulkhakov.

Ilsur Metshin, the Mayor of Kazan, noted that a decade ago, a large-scale start was made to improve the system of passenger transport in Kazan. “Specialists of the Moscow Institute together with our colleagues did a great job”, said the Mayor. “What we dream of in the near future will depend on the economy of our republic and the city. But for today, we understand that subsidies of 4.5 billion a year will not be given to us yet. Also, we cannot raise the tariff to 49 rubles in order to have an ideal public transport. We need to look for other ways. Motorization is increasing, the number of cars in yards is increasing as well. We need to seriously think about the future of the public transport in 2020”.

I. Metshin also noted that the high cost of the current route network scheme falls entirely on the shoulders of carriers, which puts them on the brink of survival. City enterprises purchase an additional 200 buses for the convenience of passengers to the future Football Championship.

“Qualitative, comfortable, and safe public transport is an indicator of the city’s strength. Public transport is the key point of urban development, which needs to be given constant attention. We have already done the first stage of the work. Now we have a detailed study on each route”, concluded I. Metshin.