The closure of six Kyiv metro stations before Christmas and New Year caused a lot of discussion in the media and social networks. Experts discuss not only the situation at the front, but also other problems that require immediate solutions.
In addition, the emergency situation on the Lybidskaya-Demeyevskaya section coincided with the adoption of the Kiev budget for 2024 , and the latter is associated with discussions about the directions of using the city’s budget funds. Therefore, in light of recent events, it is necessary to look at the transport industry of Kyiv as a whole - is it healthy or is it in a pre-infarction state, what is needed for its constant work in a crisis situation (and the load due to the closure of metro sections has increased) and what are the possible prospects for the further development of transport arteries capital Cities.
How many passengers are there in Kyiv?
The city is movement. If traffic slows down, the city is sleeping. Or is sick, for example, with Covid. If traffic stops completely, it means the city is dead.
How is Kyiv moving? The most intense traffic is in the metro - in pre-crisis 2008, 664 million passengers traveled in it, then until 2020 the number of transportation fluctuated around the 500 million mark, but last year fell to 279 million, in 2021 - to 319 million and 2022- m - up to 162 million. Consequently, in 2022, transportation decreased threefold compared to pre-crisis years and averaged 444 thousand daily.
KP "Kyivpasstrans", which provides transportation by ground transport - trams, trolleybuses, buses and funicular - carried 1.5 million passengers daily in 2020. Of course, here too, transportation has decreased threefold and amounts to approximately 500 thousand.
The exact number of passengers carried by private minibuses is unknown, but surveys show that their number coincides with those carried by the metro, therefore approximately 450 thousand.
As a result, we can estimate the daily number of public transport passengers at 1.4 million. To complete the picture, we must add here those who travel in private cars and taxis . Video surveillance (according to the Department of Transport Infrastructure of the Kyiv City State Administration) shows that on weekdays 1.1 million cars move around the city. If we assume minimum minimorum that there is a passenger in only every second car, then 1.65 million people travel in private transport. Consequently, 2 million people move in Kiev on weekdays .
From here it becomes clear how critically important the transport industry is for the life of the city, and this is the maintenance and development of the road transport network, the repair and construction of bridges and overpasses, the maintenance and acquisition of rolling stock and... people working with transport on the ground and underground. Since the beginning of the war, 400 drivers from Kievpasstrans alone have gone to the front.
When six stations of the blue metro line were recently stopped due to an emergency situation on the Lybidskaya-Demeyevskaya section, the question arose: will the industry withstand this “ stab in the back ”, will this lead to the collapse of the entire transportation system? Despite the fact that on the first Monday (a generally difficult day) a crowd formed at Lybidskaya in the morning, now we can say with confidence that the industry has survived : additional buses, drivers, and a service system were found, and they even came up with a way to compensate for the increase in costs travel for passengers for whom an “extra” bus has been added. And in order to prevent the accumulation of passengers at Lybidskaya during rush hours, the Department of Transport Infrastructure has extended some bus routes to other stations.
But the question is: does Kiev’s transport have an additional margin of safety in case of such unexpected disasters?
Is development possible during war?
On November 14, 2019, the Kiev City Council approved the decision “On approval of the City Target Program for the Development of Transport Infrastructure of the City of Kiev for 2019–2023,” which provided for funding in the amount of almost 84 billion UAH, of which 76.5 billion were to come from the city budget. In 2020, almost 13 of the 59 billion UAH of the expenditure part of the budget should have been spent on its implementation, and in the following years - about 20 billion UAH annually. They planned, in particular, the construction of 11 new tram lines, the reconstruction of 21 sections of the tram network for a “light metro” (Mass Rapid Transit - similar to a tram, but with greater capacity and speed), the acquisition of rolling stock for UAH 12.5 billion, the construction of a second exit to Vokzalnaya metro station, renovation of the Vozdukhoflotsky overpass, construction and reconstruction of dozens of other facilities.
The program was supposed to spend 22–25% of the budget on the transport industry, which was an unprecedented amount, but the pandemic and the war “made adjustments,” that is, destroyed these ambitious plans. Of course, if they could be implemented, the city’s infrastructure would change dramatically.
Now the city authorities are faced with the question of which of these projects should be included in the development program for subsequent years, and a more difficult one - is it appropriate to do this during a war, especially against the backdrop of inspired protests and a wave of speculative materials in the media? Obviously, this issue requires a separate study, which we plan to do in a separate material.
Dreams of an ideal city
Kyiv, which we inherited, is neither good nor bad, it is what it is. read Francis Fukuyama for a long time just to to guess why the subway appeared in London in 1863, and in Kiev almost 100 years later - in 1960.
Kyiv is a city on the mountains, at least on the right bank, with many underground rivers and springs, and has 82 km of underground adits for water drainage. A third of the city lives on the left bank, and 4/5 of the population works on the right. Hence the daily travel of several hundred thousand Kiev residents back and forth. In Prague, one bridge (across the Vltava) accounts for 120 thousand people, in Budapest (across the Danube) - 240 thousand, but in Kyiv - 800 thousand.
In Kiev, the road network developed in a car-centric paradigm; with the “soviet” system, you had to wait in line for a long time to buy a car, so the designers of the Southern and Podolsky bridges in the 70–80s, even in their crazy delirium, could not imagine that in Kyiv there will be a million cars! Hence their inability to pass through, let’s say correctly.
Now it is obvious to everyone that breaking the tram connection with the left bank was a wrong decision, but it is impossible to restore it without a major overhaul of the Paton Bridge. Now one can only dream of taking a tram from the left bank to Demeevskaya Square with two transfer nodes to the blue and green metro lines.
It is also obvious that the city must move to a human-centric paradigm of the transport system.
To do this, it is necessary to intensively develop public transport networks, as civilized countries do.
There are World Bank recommendations for the construction of 27.4 km of a new trolleybus network, but this requires 466 (!) new trolleybuses, which is an unrealistic fantasy.
There is a proposal to build 16 main corridors (through the entire city) for the “light metro”, its cost is 80 billion UAH (in pre-war prices), and this is the annual budget of Kiev! Here, as with the laying of new tram lines, a dilemma arises: to lay the rails in the middle of the street, as usual, which will create inconvenience for people and cars, or along the sidewalks, where they will “conflict” with the same cars?
In my opinion, laying tram lines along the planned transport corridors is not economically feasible - it requires rail tracks and contact networks, that is, significant financial costs. It is much cheaper to run buses on these trajectories that are not tied to rails and wires, and even better - electric buses, although this is also an expensive project - they are much more expensive and they require multi-seat charging stations and corresponding electrical power. In this case, they need to provide dedicated lanes on the roads and organize express traffic at least during peak hours.
All the problems identified are without ready-made solutions; I simply don’t have them. Only one thing is clear: their power and the bulk of the city must be sought together .
