City Hall's Search for Drivers for Vanished Zykovo Minibus So Far Unsuccessful
The Chita administration is looking for drivers for route No. 44 («KSK» to «DK Solnyshko») and route No. 1 («P. KSK» to «P. Zykovo» to «CHZK»), where the departure of a carrier forced the authorities to change bus schedules, causing dissatisfaction among local residents. However, there are no applicants so far. This was reported to a Chita.Ru correspondent on 21 January by Deputy Mayor Andrey Grenishin.
It all started when the popular bus No. 1 to the village of Zykovo stopped running on 14 December. The Chita mayor«s office responded that the entrepreneur left the route and a new one has not been found yet: the tender was announced several times, but no one applied. As a result, on 16 January, the mayor»s office announced that to solve the problem, they would redistribute municipal transport to the abandoned route No. 1. Now the municipal bus No. 44 («KSK» to «DK Solnyshko») will run its usual route during the morning peak hours and then go to temporarily serve route No. 1 to Zykovo — which is what residents were unhappy about, saying that the problem of one village was solved at the expense of another. The mayor«s office published a new bus schedule due to the changes.
«Nothing has changed. The new traffic scheme that was adopted is still in effect. There»s nothing more we can do. While it is temporarily working, we are also continuing the search. If we find a solution and additional drivers appear, we will return everything as it was. <…> So far there are no takers. Some come, find out that the salary is low, and leave; some say they will think about it. The salary is up to 80,000 rubles (about $889 at current rates),« said Andrey Grenishin.
He noted that the change in the traffic scheme has partially solved the problems of transport services for residents, and there is no problem of overcrowding on buses now.
It was previously reported that residents of the village of Zastep and nearby dachas sent an appeal to the governor: they are dissatisfied with the decision of the Chita administration to temporarily redirect municipal bus route No. 44 («KSK» to «DK Solnyshko») to route No. 1 («P. KSK» to «P. Zykovo» to «CHZK»), which has not been operating since mid-December after the entrepreneur left. As a result, residents of Zastep faced transport difficulties, and the proposed alternative extended route No. 5 does not suit their schedule. About 100 people signed the appeal to Osipov. Later, they also wrote an appeal to the prosecutor«s office and the head of the Chernovsky district administration, where more than 600 people have now signed.
Andrey Grenishin, commenting on the complaint from passengers of route No. 44, noted that the authorities had no other choice. The regional governor Alexander Osipov instructed the vice-premier of the regional government Mikhail Zaichenko and Chita Mayor Inna Shcheglova to deal with the bus route.
