90 minutes to get there: the Moscow authorities will “speed up” the passengers
The Moscow authorities are creating a unified transport system in the city. Following the fight on traffic jams by eliminating free parkings in the center of the city, the city officials occupied themselves with “passenger jams” at the subway ticket offices and turnstiles. The transport department of the capital has elaborated the so-called new ticket menu for 2013 for this purpose, which will be gradually introduced starting on February 1st.
As the developers would have it, the new ticket types should make everyone’s life easier: the passengers, the cashiers and the drivers of the public transport, as they would not have to deal with coins anymore. The “one-copeck” tickets for one and two passages will no longer be sold and will be transformed into “electronic wallets” – plastic cards, which would be replenished with the help of ATMs and SMS. While most passengers are getting used to the thought that soon they will have to observe the new transportation rules, some public persons intend to contest those rules in court.
Wholesale is cheaper
First the authorities thought about painting all Moscow cabs yellow, like in New York, and now they are turning to the international experience of organization of public transportation. The first stage of the ticket reform kicks off on February 1st: new subway tickets “adapted for use in the surface transport” will appear in the capital. Such tickets will be good for paying subway trips as well as bus, tram and trolleybus rides. Five variants of a single ticket with a fixed number of trips (5 to 60) valid for three months are contemplated. This ticket will replace two common tickets – for surface transport and for the city subway. The monthly ticket for unlimited rides in all public transportation will cost 2200 roubles, which is cheaper than the current separate subway (1710 roubles) and surface (bus, tram, and trolleybus – 840 roubles). The ticket for 60 trips will cost 1200 roubles. The new “ticket menu” should help passengers to economize, stimulate the purchase of tickets for more rides and increase the attractiveness of public transportation.
It is known that all things new are well-forgotten things old. The practice of employing unified passage tickets has not only been adopted from the foreign experience (it is used, for example, in London and Paris) but also from the Soviet past. Denis Ulianov, senior lawyer of the Society of Protection of Consumer’s Rights (OZPP) says: “Such system successfully functioned in the USSR. And it may be convenient for those, for example, whose work involves much travelling”.
According to him, the plans of the Mayor’s Office to eliminate in July one and two-trip tickets are much more debatable (according to the information of the capital city’s transport department, approximately 25% of the passengers, who buy their tickets at the cashiers, purchase those).
The lawyer explains: “Formally, according to Article 32 of the Consumers’ Rights Protection Law, if a passenger buys a ticket for five rides while planning only one, he is entitled to return the ticket with the four unused rides. But the transport companies will naturally refuse to return the money, and no one will go to courts to reclaim 50-60 roubles”. The one and two-trip tickets are not formally banned but rather transferred to a plastic card – the so-called “electronic wallet” (similar to the London oyster cards). The pledge value of such card is of 50 roubles, and at least 50 roubles should be put in such wallet via ATM or SMS.
Alexander Shumskiy, head of the Moscow center of combating traffic jams, shared his opinion: “I am an automobilist, and as such, it will be much more convenient for me to use the “electronic wallet” than to buy one and two-trip tickets, since I go by subway very rarely, and it is very time-consuming to stand in lines”.
D.Ulianov is convinced that the end of sales of hardcopy tickets is most disadvantageous to those, who pass through Moscow. The lawyer explains: “Only two types of transportation are required to reach any railway station from Vnukovo airport – subway and bus, for example. Purchase or rent of any plastic cards (even for 50 roubles) for transit passengers does nothing but further complicates”. In his opinion, selling one and two-trip tickets from the automatic ticket sellers in the subway would be optimal.
Time is money or who needs “perishable” tickets
The Moscow department officials decided to assist the transit passengers in a different way. On April 1st, a new unlimited ticket for all public transportation types, valid for 90 minutes, will be introduced. Such ticket will cost 50 roubles and will be good for 1 subway ride and no limit of trips on the surface transport. Also at that time, a tourist ticket for all public transportation for 24 hours, at the cost of 200 roubles, will appear. The experts are, as yet, reluctant to give unambiguous evaluations of such measure. But it is easy to imagine a traveler running and carrying his suitcases while being 1 minute late for his “last” bus. Such a race may get on anyone’s nerves and ruin anyone’s mood.
However, Alexey Blinkin, leading researcher of the Research Institute of the Transportation, is of the opinion that the new collection of payment instruments is a reasonable and sound suggestion. A.Blinkin pointed out: “The idea is to separate the needs of the regular travelers from the necessities of those, who only sporadically use the public transportation. This is absolutely standard for all megalopolises of the world”.
According to the expert, the new tickets will not seriously affect the economy of the most popular means of transport if the city – the subway. He explains: “Using a unified tariff for the transportation of passengers across the city 34 kilometers in diameter, no matter the distance, is cheap, but the cost of the passage may not be changed for social reasons. The venture’s (the Moscow subway – RBC) expenses nowadays are comparable to those of the foreign subways: the electricity is not cheaper, the costs of the vehicles is the same, and the salaries are reaching the European level”. The expert believes that keeping the unlimited passage by social card is “a Soviet archaism, and should be eliminated”.
He adds: “Are there few examples, when a young energetic niece uses her pensioner aunt’s social card? In a tram, such passengers may be discovered and checked, while it is next to impossible to do in the subway”.
Note that the traditionally most expensive trips are made in the public transportation of London. The payment system is also the most complicated here: the price of a ride may differ greatly dependent on where and when you go. A trip within the first zone of London (the city center, one of six zones) costs all of 4,5 pounds sterling (7 USD) when paying cash or 2,1 pounds when paying by oyster card. A ride from the city center to the outskirts – the sixth zone – will cost 5,5 pounds is paid cash and 5 pounds – by oyster card. One trip in Paris costs a medium of 1,3 euros (1,7 USD), in New-Yourk – 2,5 USD, and in Tokyo, dependant on the distance, 160-300 yen (1,8 – 3,4 USD).
Arriving at the court
When the capital city transport department developed the new types of tickets for 2013, it seemingly did not want to leave well enough alone, cancelling some popular and not so popular ticket types. For example, the passengers were skeptic towards the transfer since July 2 of one and two-trip tickets to plastic cards and to the round-up of the subway trips to 30 and 60 roubles respectively. The one and two-trip tickets for such rounded-up prices will be available for purchase in the automatic selling machines of the subway since April 2nd till July 1st of the current year. Afterwards they will only be available through the “electronic wallet” (in this case, one trip by surface transport will cost 26 roubles, by subway – 28 roubles).
Calculating that the Moscow Subway carries 8 million passengers daily, and almost a quarter of them prefer one and two-trip tickets, the increase of the price of such tickets by 2 roubles will additionally bring 4 million roubles per day to the budget of the capital city subway. However, according to the Moscow transport department, over half of all passengers are benefit receivers; therefore the additional profit of the subway from this novelty will be much lower. It is possible that the Moscow Mayor’s Office had another goal: to make the payments non-cash. Probably, monthly tickets may be “recorded” at the “electronic wallets”, like the oyster cards of London. An undisputed advantage of electronic tickets is that they will be good for paying the passage in municipal transport as well as in suburban electric trains and “aeroexpresses”.
Another debatable novelty is the revocation of unlimited subway tickets for 90 and 365 days. Less than 1% of all passengers use them, and the rest has to pay for those cheap tickets, or so explained Maksim Liksutov, Vice Mayor of Moscow. Whereas the price of the subway passage will increase significantly for active users of the subway. Very soon the ticket for all public transport for 200 roubles per month will be the only alternative for the limitless subway ticket. It is easy to calculate that the single ticket will cost 26400 roubles per year instead of the former yearly unlimited subway-only ticket for 11430 roubles.
According to Alexey Bezborodov, head of Infranews agency, the main disadvantage of the existing system of public transportation tariffs of Moscow is its lack of transparency. As the Moscow Subway’s accountability is not open, says the expert, it is practically impossible to calculate the “fair” price of the passage. A.Bezborodov is indignant: “Tomorrow they will charge me 30 roubles, and not 25-26 roubles, for not using the subway on a daily basis and not buying long-term tickets. This is absolutely inadequate. The subway’s expenses should first be evaluated”.
The Society of Protection of Consumer’s Rights (OZPP) has already declared its intention to go to courts. As RBC was told at the OZPP, the possibility to sue the Moscow Mayor’s Office is being considered. However, the claim may only be filed after the new tickets enter into force. The OZPP members say: “We are mainly alarmed by the cancellation of one and two-trip tickets. We consider this as imposition of extended services, which is a violation of civil legislation”.
Alexander Yevdokimov, Head of Arbitration Practice of the Law Firm "YUST", OZPP has a chance of winning the suit due to the use of that wording. He says: “If it is impossible to buy a one-trip ticket or its sale is linked to the purchase of the “electronic wallet” (which is a service not directly linked to the trip), this will breach the law. And the respective normative act of the capital city’s Mayor’s Office, which fixes such procedure, may be appealed against”. Besides, according to A.Yevdokimov, this act may contain breaches of antitrust legislation.
See here for the complete article: http://top.rbc.ru/economics/29/01/2013/842527.shtml
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