11 August 2010 , 13:30

Valentina Matvienko: Water bus pilot has exceeded all expectations

Today the Governor Valentina Matvienko held a working meeting on development of aqua-bus on board of one of them.

The concept of water passenger transport has been developed by the Government of St. Petersburg two years ago to improve the transport accessibility of the city and reduce traveling time. The Committee on Transport and Transit Policy held a competition, the winners have organized the first regular water routes in addition to existing routes from the center of St. Petersburg to Kronstadt and from Kronstadt to Lomonosov – from the Central park of culture and leisure to Arsenal Embankment and from “Moscow” Hotel to the Bronze Horseman.

Small speedboats run with interval of 10 - 15 minutes, journey time is 10-15 minutes. Price is 50 rubles, which is almost 10 times less than the cost of walking on a commercial excursion boat. All boats are equipped with satellite navigator system GLONASS, the signal goes to the dispatch point. In the near future the system will allow passengers to observe the movements of ships on-line via Internet site and to estimate the time of arrival of boats at all piers. A new mode of transportation gained popularity among citizens and guests of the northern capital.

Valentina Matvienko said: "It's very comfortable and popular form of transport - from one end of town to another, it takes only 12 minutes to reach from the pier near the park to Smolny Embankment. This trip by car or usual transport tales much more time. I am confident that we acted properly. We should take advantages of the city, its water ways for water transport".

The Governor also said that next year water transport program will be continued. Next year it is panned to extend two existing routes, including the route to Rybatzkoe, and open two new routes.

Number of routes will be increased each year. Carriers are ready to order and build new ships. In one of the companies there is an idea to move the production of boats from Nizhniy Novgorod to St. Petersburg, so the city will consider the possibility of allocating land for a new factory. Valentina Matvienko stressed that the production of boats at the "place" cheapen their costs, increase return on traffic in general will improve the economics of the project.

The second type of boats involved in the routes already being produced at Izhorsk factory, and production will be increased. In September, the line will come with 8 new boats. By the next navigation of small boats on inland city routes the number will be increased substantially. The city will assist in setting up production in St. Petersburg.

In addition, as announced by the Governor, there will be organized "water taxi" service, which can be ordered by telephone through central dispatch. The Committee works out the details of this new commercial service and tariffs. Valentina Matvienko has ordered the Vice-governor Yury Molchanov and the Chairman of the Committee on Transport and Transit Policy Nicholay Asaul to analyze the results of the first navigation: demand for water bus routes, stops, traffic on the profitability, so next year they could significantly expand the program. "The pilot project exceeded all our expectations, we will certainly pursue it", - the Governor outlined.

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