Moscow is currently hosting Transport Week 2021, one of the main events in the country's transport industry. They also mentioned Astrakhan on it, although so far rather as an anti-example. The fact is that this autumn specialists of the federal "ROSDORNIA" started working in our city, who are studying local public transport and developing a new transport scheme. The final results of the work will be presented in December, but the head of the transport planning department of ROSDORNIA, Vladimir Pashchenko, has already shared preliminary ones.
There are more minibuses than passengers
And yes: as we thought, everything is very bad. The expert especially drew attention to the huge number of minibuses. There are about 1,000 of them, which is too much for a city of half a million. It's overloading the streets. At the same time, this type of transport is unsafe and it is difficult for people with limited mobility to get into it.
"The system is killing itself. Now, out of 113 routes listed in the register, only 63 are already operating. Although there are practically no yellow Gazelles anymore, almost completely it is still a small class," Vladimir Pashchenko said.
Problems in Astrakhan public transport from all sides, wherever you look. There is no regulated tariff — carriers set the prices themselves. At the same time, there are a record number of carriers themselves — 379. "We haven't seen anything like this anywhere," admitted the head of the transport planning department. Non-cash payment in Astrakhan could not be found. Drivers work in one shift, so the transport finishes work early — at 20-21 hours. Most stops and endpoints are not equipped…
Astrakhan vs. Novokuznetsk
In general, nothing new: we see it all ourselves every day. But, it seems, they even began to forget that it could be different. Therefore, it is interesting to look at an example of a city similar to ours, which has already carried out transport reform. And this is Novokuznetsk. The population is the same — a little more than 500 thousand people. But that's where the similarities end.
In Novokuznetsk, there are not 1000 public transport units on the line, but only 458, because the basis of the fleet is large-class buses. And quite new: the age is less than 5 years (the average age of the Astrakhan minibus is 11 years). Besides, trams and trolleybuses are alive.
With all this in Novokuznetsk has an adjustable fare and the fare is only 20 rubles. For comparison, we have 25 rubles, and recently more and more often 30 at all. The case when price and quality went somewhere in different directions, contrary to all market laws. It is not surprising that Novokuznetsk residents use public transport much more willingly than Astrakhan residents. Passenger traffic there is 300 thousand passengers per day, against 217 thousand passengers per day in Astrakhan. If it is possible to achieve the indicators of Novokuznetsk, it will already be a victory," Pashchenko stressed.
To leave the last place
According to the representative of ROSDORNIA, the current authorities in Astrakhan — both city and regional — are now determined and have realized the need for reform. One of the factors contributing to this was the rating of the company "Simetra", in which Astrakhan public transport took a confident last place for two years in a row.
"The rating is expert, it rather comes from the passenger, but the last place that Astrakhan took is like a "red rag" for those who run the region. The task now is to enter the TOP 10, and we believe that this is possible," Vladimir said Paschenko.
The expert also announced the ways in which Astrakhan public transport will be resuscitated. According to him, several options were initially considered: from conservative to radical restructuring of the route network. In the end, they decided that "poultices" would not help here and settled on the most radical.
In accordance with this plan, the total number of routes will be reduced to 48, and they will mainly be served by buses of large and medium class. Although minibuses will remain: for places with a small passenger traffic. The preliminary layout is as follows: 83 large buses, 225 medium and 154 small. A total of 462 pieces instead of the current 1000. It seems that traffic jams in some places like the vicinity of the Fair shopping center should disappear after that.
Out of the total number of routes, it is planned to allocate 6 trunk routes — it is there that large buses will be sent. Interestingly, even the costs of their electrification were calculated — using the remnants of the trolleybus infrastructure. If this is done, it will be necessary to reconstruct six substations.
Also, Astrakhan plans to get rid of duplication after all routes when carriers only interfere with each other, and add dedicated lanes. Experts have calculated that their optimal length will be 46 kilometers. They will also be engaged in the equipment of stops.
"I think we will eventually reach the planned figures, one way or another. I think in a couple of years it will be possible to compare and make sure," the expert concluded.