The desire to own a car seems to be an unstoppable human urge, but the facts are that the feet, the 53-year metro system and the occasional taxi are usually the fastest and most reliable ways to get around the center of the city at most hours of the day. Trains, buses or airplanes also do the trick nicely for travel from one big city to another within Ukraine.
Kyiv’s metro first came online in 1960, with the opening of the red Sviatoshinska-Brovarska line. The city now has four lines and 51 stations. It’s not enough. The system is running at a financial deficit and, despite being one of the few blessings of the Soviet era, is hampered by outdated management and ticketing practices.
Fortunately, city transportation authorities have studied other European capitals and decided to replace the token with an electronic plastic card that would also be good for rides on the city’s buses and trams.
This would be an improvement in many ways. Besides added convenience in adding credit, the e-cards allow flexibility in pricing to take into the time and duration of a ride, to charge more for usage during peak hours, to charge less for long-term users and to give discounts to the poor, elderly, students or other protected classes of citizens.
Currently, the tokens and monthly cards charge Hr 2 per ride – that’s less than 25 cents. This is a great bargain, but not if it starves a great public transportation system of investment, as it is doing now. A price that reaches Hr 4 to Hr 5 per ride – 50 cents or more – is still reasonable, while giving much-needed capital for improvements, city transportation officials.
There is concern that, as too often happens in Ukraine, any change will be accompanied by corruption. The front-page article in the Kyiv Post raises questions about a private company that will get an 8 percent cut of the e-card sales. If done transparently and in the public interest – two big “ifs” in Ukrainian life – the metro could become an even more indispensable mode of transportation, especially if new lines and new stations are constructed, if the wait between train times is minimized and if the trains are going as close to 24 hours a day as possible.
Some in the West are spending hundreds of billions of dollars to create public transportation systems to lessen reliance on automobiles. All Kyiv has to do is maintain and improve what already exists, a much cheaper proposition.
