Kyiv's municipal authorities plan to launch a single electronic ticket system for all modes of municipal transport in the capital by year's end. The system will be developed by Kharkiv-based Alfapay, the company that won the tender.
According to deputy head of
the Kyiv city state administration Ruslan Kramarenko, Alfapay will invest Hr
120 million ($15 million) in the project and will transfer an additional Hr 3
million to the city budget to for infrastructure development.
The company will start by
implementing the electronic ticketing system in the subway, where 650
turnstiles need to be adapted, and 232 one-way ticket selling machines and 300
regular card replenishing terminals need to be installed. The next step is to
equip municipal buses, trams and trolleybuses with 4500 validating devices, 700
point of sales-terminals and 300 travel card selling terminals. This stage is
expected to end by early 2014.
Officials hope the
electronic ticketing will help determine just how many travelers fail to pay
their fares, either due to dishonesty or social privileges. By eliminating this
problem, they hope ticket receipts will increase by a third.
“E-tickets allow to control
flow of funds at all levels starting from producing tickets, through the time
when they are bought, to the time when they are used,” said Kramarenko.
According to the official,
Alfapay will receive a share of the revenues, but did not specify how much. The
company did not comment on the issue. The investment agreement is for 10
years.
At present, several types
of tickets are used in public transport. The price of a subway token is Hr 2
while a single trolleybus, tram or municipal bus ride costs Hr 1.5.
According to a European
Bank for Reconstruction and Development report, Kyivpasstrans loses 25-30
percent of receipts because of the “free ride” problem. By contrast, in
Poland’s Warsaw the number is between 3 and 7 percent.
Kyiv
Post staff writer Denis Rafalsky can be reached at [email protected]
