The Ulyanovsk carrier – LLC “Professional Union of Military Personnel” – turned to the deputies of the ZSO with a request for help. In the near future, city authorities plan to raffle off two routes served by the company – No. 43 and 52. Private owners fear that the documentation will be drawn up in such a way that PATP-1 will win the competition. The management of the state-owned enterprise does not deny that they are interested in the routes and hope that working on them will help the financial recovery of PATP. The deputies noted the paradoxical nature of the situation and recommended that the Ministry of Transport find a compromise.
The founder of Professional Union of Military Personnel LLC, Alexander Lebedev, said that his company has been providing transport services for more than 20 years. This is one of the few private carriers that operates at a regulated tariff. The private owner serves two main routes – No. 43 and 52, five gardening routes (95С, 82С, 99С, 84С, 87С, 58) and two socially significant routes – the river port (will begin operating on June 1) and to “New Life”.
– More than 80 buses operate on the routes, including medium-capacity buses. All of them are connected to the GLONASS system and equipped with cash register equipment and validators. We employ more than 100 employees. There are no serious comments on the work; based on the results of the inspection of the data processing center, the schedule is fulfilled by more than 95%, Lebedev explained.
The problem arose because the one-and-a-half-year contract that the city entered into with the LLC expires in December. A new competition will be announced, in which, according to the private owner, PATP-1 plans to take part.
– PATP wants to offer only medium-capacity buses. In this case, we will not be able to compete with the enterprise. Whether he will be able to recover financially thanks to winning the competition is a big question. There are many parallel routes with small capacity buses that will provide competition. We receive subsidies under the contract – 25 kopecks per kilometer of work (for a year and a half this is 628,405 thousand rubles on route 43). It is unlikely that PATP-1 will operate under such conditions; additional financial injections will probably be needed. The question arises: why break something that has been working well for 20 years? The passengers themselves say that they can only leave in the evening on our 52nd bus. One hundred of our workers may remain on the street, because if we lose the tender, we will be left without routes, since the validity period of the certificate for the right to carry out passenger transportation has expired. And we will lose it if only medium-capacity buses are indicated in the tender documentation,” said the founder of the LLC.
According to Alexander Lebedev, the management of PATP-1 can develop their own routes, which will also be profitable.
And about. The head of the MKU “Organizer of Passenger Transportation” Igramudin Emirov admitted that the “Professional Union of Military Personnel” fulfills the schedule almost 100% and today is one of the best carriers in the city. The contract, according to him, will be played out for 2025 and 2026.
Acting director of PATP-1 Ivan Pavlov noted that the enterprise development project, which involved the purchase of 50 buses and the subsequent acquisition of another 150 vehicles (the authorities later abandoned this), provided for the transfer of seven routes, including No. 43 and 52. As a result only two were transferred – No. 20 and 28. Emirov clarified that PATP-1 complies with the traffic schedule “by 70-80 percent.” “That is, in fact, worse than, for example, route No. 43,” said the head of the industrial committee, Dmitry Grachev. Emirov replied that “there is no tension on route 28, and route 20 was built in such a way that all people leave freely during peak times, although, of course, they want better.”
– You, as professionals, probably calculated the need for rolling stock units and the traffic interval. And they must make demands for its implementation. “And now you say: well, it doesn’t do it, but that’s okay,” Grachev retorted.
Director Ivan Pavlov stood up for PATP-1. He stated that the company is working to optimize the number of flights and rolling stock:
– Taking into account existing contracts, the schedule is designed in such a way that we have the same traffic interval both during peak and off-peak times. We make suggestions regarding the schedule to optimize it. We do not reduce transport accessibility. Our task is to minimize losses.
The acting director of PATP-1 explained that the company was tasked with analyzing contracts for servicing routes that will be won back in the city, and participating in them:
– We chose those routes in which we really see income. We don’t want to limit anyone. But we don’t have small class buses, so with such documentation we will be deprived of the opportunity to participate in the competition. But it is necessary that both state-owned enterprises and private owners can do this.
Emirov supported his colleague: he stated that the “enlargement of the class of buses” in the terms of reference is being done to make passengers more comfortable.
Dmitry Grachev voiced the paradoxical nature of the situation:
– The route owners agreed to switch to a regulated tariff. We hear that everything works well, 95-97%. And now you say: now we will take it for ourselves and work well ourselves. We will make the competition so that private traders are not competitive. We are not lobbying for anyone’s interests here; we stand for fair competition. The main task is to provide people with high-quality transport, and not to increase the income of the PATP by switching the route to another provider.
The head of the committee recalled that the state of the state-owned enterprise was discussed at the ZSO site more than once. The management of PATP-1 announced that 30-50 buses were idle due to a lack of drivers. But, nevertheless, he wants to pick up additional routes:
“We are afraid that a private enterprise that works well and fulfills its obligations may stop working. And there are concerns about whether PATP can do better.
Deputy Yuri Mukhin questioned the fact that passengers positively assess the work of public transport: “Such feedback can be heard, probably, from 1 out of 100 city residents.” According to him, the problem with personnel at the state-owned enterprise really remains acute – drivers are leaving for private owners, plus some of them are now at SVO.
“If this organization had a development plan, we wouldn’t be meeting here now on these issues and figuring out who would be involved in these routes here,” Mukhin noted.
Vasily Gvozdev admitted that this discussion gave him “strange feelings”:
– What is missing here is the antimonopoly committee, which probably told us: guys, what are you discussing? Is it possible to make a competition for one or the other? Where is the strong lawyer who will put you in your place? There are not enough prosecutors for you! If a competition is held, the documentation must be done in such a way that residents receive high quality services. With all due respect to you, Alexander Vladimirovich (Lebedev – approx. edit.), saying on our site “make sure there are no medium buses” is simply without comment.
Gvozdev called for a broader view – to discuss urban transport development programs and develop new routes. For example, now we should think about what buses will run on the new bridge to Shevchenko, where bus No. 3 from PATP ran in the 80-90s.
The second representative of the carrier, Sergei Abramov, proposed returning to the certificates, which give the right to operate routes and develop them for seven years:
– In two years (the duration of the contract), not a single bus can be purchased, let alone dozens of buses. There is no need to spend budget money on us; they can be redirected somewhere else.
Dmitry Grachev summarized that deputies cannot influence the terms of the competition. Which must be carried out: “Remember the reclamation of the landfill in Krasny Yar. If a competition had been held then, 152 million from the budget would probably now have been directed not there, but to the development of PATP.” As a result, the Ministry of Transport was recommended to consider the appeal of private owners and work out a joint solution with them so as not to pit business against the authorities.
Tags: workers remain street Private carrier asked play routes Ulyanovsk PATP1 Ulpressa
-
