Urban Public Transport Restructuring in the Russian City of Tolyatti

The present situation of urban public transport in Tolyatti is clearly not sustainable. Without determined action, the present municipal transport companies will disappear and the city will become fully dependent on the private minibus network, causing congestion, environmental conditions and road safety to deteriorate further. In order to arrive at a sustainable urban public transport system in Tolyatti, fundamental changes are needed, which can only be achieved in the long term. These changes include: (1) legal, institutional and capacity building measures, leading to the creation of a Passenger Transport Authority; (2) development of a rationalized network (trunk and feeder) and investment in rolling stock and infrastructure; (3) reform of the fare system; (4) reform of operating practice; and (5) a rational tendering process for the minibus sector in its role of operator of feeder routes. But this will take time and in the meantime urgent short term problems need to be addressed. The main obstacle to achieving a more sustainable public transport network in Tolyatti seems to be a lack of political commitment. Most actors in the public transport field are not content with the situation, but a vision beyond piecemeal solutions is lacking. An example of what political commitment (a political champion) can achieve in a former Soviet Union city, is given by the city of Kaunas in Lithuania, where the situation was comparable to that of Tolyatti at time of the collapse of the Soviet Union. The municipal public transport network was in decline between 1995 and 2004. This has now been completely turned around: new investments, a 20% increase in total public transport use in five years, a reduction by 62% of the minibus share. The success was acknowledged by a Civitas award in 2005.4 A key success factor was strong and continuous political support for the reform, and we have seen no signs of this yet in Tolyatti. A continuation of the present situation in Tolyatti is likely to lead to further degradation and reduction of municipal transport, leaving the urban transport market to the minibus. Together with the continuing increase in car use this will lead to a strong increase of the problems of congestion and of deterioration of the environment and traffic safety.

• Record URL:
  • https://aetransport.org/past-etc-papers/conference-papers-pre-2009/conference-papers-2009
• Corporate Authors:

  Association for European Transport (AET)

  1 Vernon Mews, Vernon Street, West Kensington
  London W14 0RL,    
• Authors:
  • Baanders, Ambrosius
  • Scholten, Bas
• Conference:
  • European Transport Conference, 2009
  • Location: Leiden Leeuwenhorst Conference Centre , Netherlands
  • Date: 2009-10-5 to 2009-10-7
• Publication Date: 2009

Language

• English

Media Info

• Media Type: Web
• Features: Bibliography; Figures; Maps;
• Pagination: 17p
• Monograph Title: European Transport Conference, 2009 Proceedings

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Fares; Feeder services; Industries; Infrastructure; Public transit; Rolling stock; Transit operating agencies; Urban areas
• Uncontrolled Terms: Automobile manufacturers
• Geographic Terms: Tolyatti (Russia)
• Subject Areas: Planning and Forecasting; Public Transportation; I72: Traffic and Transport Planning;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01345744
• Record Type: Publication
• Files: TRIS
• Created Date: Jul 28 2011 10:02AM