The online arena discussed the financing of the transport industry
The Association of Transport Engineers, a non–profit association of specialists in the field of development of transport systems and ensuring their effective functioning, has successfully implemented an online event format that is new for the road industry. On September 25, 2020, an infra-battle on the topic "Public procurement or concession" was held for the first time on the organization's platform: which option of modernization and development of urban electric transport is more effective?". The discussion was attended by leading industry experts, including Vladimir Pashchenko, Head of the Transport Planning Department of the FAA "ROSDORNII". The representative of the Institute spoke about the state of the industry and the state strategy for its reform.
Two "teams" took part in the discussion:Vladimir Pashchenko and Professor of the Department of Transport Systems of SPbGASU, Doctor of Economics.Andrey Gorev defended the priority of state and municipal financing of the industry, and the General director of the First Transport Infrastructure Company Andrey Shestopalov and Vice-President of the International Association of Urban Electric Transport EnterprisesAlexander Morozov advocated the priority support of concessions. The infra-battle was accompanied by comments from the participants of the expert group and listeners.
"What happened in Russia with urban electric transport – trams and trolleybuses – after 1990 can be compared to a shipwreck. However, this does not mean that now we have to completely destroy the rest in order to build a new transport infrastructure on the ruins. As practice shows, the result of applying such an approach is often a critical decrease in the quality and safety of public transportation. For example, we see how, against the background of the destruction of large municipal enterprises – trolleybus fleets and tram depots – the number of small class buses – minibuses serviced mainly by small private carriers, often unable to ensure the normal quality of services provided, is growing. At the same time, in many cities it has been completely preserved and, even despite the lack of proper of course, the electric transport infrastructure is functioning properly, which can be upgraded in a short time," Vladimir Pashchenko believes.
As an example, the specialist cites the experience of the Municipal Unitary Enterprise "Cheboksary Trolleybus Management". Every year, this transport company transports about 60 million passengers, while over the past five years it has managed to become profitable from unprofitable. According to the expert, federal funding should be directed primarily to the needs of modernization and development of such large municipal enterprises with a large volume of passenger traffic. Otherwise, the industry will not be able to get rid of the "route model of transportation", where each bus competes for a passenger and ultimately the degradation of passenger transport occurs, making it unsafe and unattractive for the passenger.
Many participants of the discussion agreed with this point of view, noting at the same time that public procurement in the field of public transport does not interfere with the parallel development of concessions. It is obvious that there is not enough state and municipal money for everything: transport problems remain. cities where electric transport has also been present historically and has prospects. Concession enterprises could well solve them. All participants of the discussion agreed that the main thing on the agenda today is that for the first time in many years the federal center is seriously considering the possibility of launching a major program to support public transport, and if appropriate decisions are taken at the Government level, there should be a place in the package of support measures for public-private partnership and direct subsidies for infrastructure and rolling stock of public transport.