Emergency door failures plague new buses in Perm

Recently, residents of Perm were trapped in a city bus with locked doors. According to witnesses, not only passengers but also the driver could not get out. The situation was commented on by city transport companies and representatives of the Likinsky Bus Plant (LiAZ).

The door incident occurred on 17 December. It was reported to 59.RU by a reader.

«On route No. 64 all buses were replaced with new ones. Today one broke down: all doors were locked, the driver couldn»t let us out. The emergency door opening doesn«t work on any of them, so men had to open the doors and hold them while people exited. The new buses all jerk when changing gears, it»s impossible to stand steady,« — 59.RU reader Ksenia told the publication.

A transport correspondent for 59.RU discussed these problems with the head of the transport company «Kompass,» which serves route No. 64, as well as other Perm carriers using LiAZ buses. All confirmed that problems with the new equipment continue.

Carrier Elena Adamovich: «Electronic errors from the factory»

According to the owner of ATP «Kompass» Elena Adamovich, problems with the doors on LiAZ buses produced in 2025 occur regularly.

«These are electronic errors from the factory,» — Elena Adamovich noted in a conversation with 59.RU. — One day the doors opened by themselves without pressing the buttons — we checked the cameras. Then the emergency braking activated, fortunately the speed was low, no one was hurt.«

According to the 59.RU interlocutor, it has not been possible to resolve the problems with the new equipment through warranty service with the Likinsky Bus Plant (LiAZ).

«Their specialists are below our level: they can»t suggest or do anything because they lack competence,« — laments Elena Adamovich.

The deputy head of ATP «Kompass» for technical matters, Alexei Yelkin, clarified that the carrier«s specialists are already trying to reprogram the automatic transmissions themselves. For this, they purchased special equipment and registered with the Chinese manufacturer Fast Gear.

«We haven»t encountered this problem yet. We have no experience, the official LiAZ dealer has no specialists. According to other carriers, the transmission needs to be adapted several times,« — Alexei Yelkin told 59.RU.

The technical deputy director of «Kompass» also cannot name the causes and possible ways to fix the door lock issues on the buses. According to him, to reboot the electronics, which causes all the door problems, drivers have to go outside and reset the «mass» — the power supply to the bus«s electrical circuit from the batteries.

«It»s unclear what«s next and how such door locking could end. My drivers ask me: »What if something happens and we can«t get out?» — and I can«t answer,» — notes Alexei Yelkin.

Carrier Alexander Antipov: «This is all import substitution»

The owner and head of ATP «AAAvto» Alexander Antipov says that in his buses, they haven«t encountered doors locking in the closed state yet. However, the doors have repeatedly refused to close without any reason.

«If the doors are electric, then due to problems with electronic units, such a problem can arise. No matter how much you turn the emergency opening valve to release air, the bus»s «brains» won«t allow the doors to open,» — Alexander Antipov explained to 59.RU.

Alexander Antipov notes that problems with new equipment have arisen after 2022, when manufacturers had to abandon European components due to sanctions and replace them with Chinese ones. According to the carrier, all bus plants and transport companies using their equipment are now facing problems with Chinese components. Besides the Fast Gear automatic transmissions, due to import substitution, there are currently no alternative options on the Russian market for buses.

«They installed Chinese Weichai engines — they»re still good, but the Fast Gear automatic transmissions... I was in China and asked why they made such a thing. They said: «We were given a million and told to make it for that — so we did»,« — notes Antipov. — »As a result, there«s a perpetual problem in adapting the transmission to the engine. If you take five machines with identical configurations, they might require five different transmission firmware, you have to check everywhere by trial and error.»

Director of ATP «Dizel»: «Not solvable with a snap of the fingers»

The head of the transport company «Dizel» Andrei Binevsky also notes that the quality of buses from all plants has sharply dropped after 2022 due to import substitution of components. However, now LiAZ has faced a new problem — the bankruptcy of the supplier of electronics for buses.

«The company that made electronic units for LiAZ went bankrupt, it no longer exists,» — Andrei Binevsky noted in a conversation with 59.RU. — «The bus plant is somehow trying to resolve this situation, but it won»t be solved with a snap of the fingers, it«s unclear what to do. They promised not to leave it unattended and to solve the issue.»

The carrier links the problem of poor bus assembly at the plants to the delay in launching the federal preferential leasing program, under which carriers receive significant discounts on updating their fleets.

«The preferential leasing program starts working in the second half of the year,» — says Binevsky. — «First, everyone waits in ignorance and misunderstanding, and in the fall they start trying frantically to get everything done by the end of the year. We faced this ourselves. Naturally, with such an avalanche-like rush, there will be problems and difficulties.»

In December 2025, «Dizel» received a new batch of LiAZ buses. In total, their fleet will soon be supplemented by 30 new vehicles. So far, this equipment has not been put into service with passengers on routes.

«The batch we recently brought to Perm seems a bit better. There, instead of hydraulic drive cooling, electric drive is now used. During the delivery, not everything went smoothly, but it seems the transmission works better. There»s a feeling that the new buses are made a bit more quality. We«ll see how they perform on the line,» — Andrei Binevsky told 59.RU.

Malfunctions of the engine cooling hydraulic drive system have repeatedly been directly or indirectly cited as the cause of increasing bus fires. The electric drive cooling option is similar to a computer«s, where large fans cool the engine compartment, pushing hot air out.

All complaints from passengers and Perm carriers concern LiAZ buses. They were commented on by 59.RU in the press service of the Likinsky Bus Plant (LiAZ). They stated that they provide full warranty and service maintenance for their buses.

«Our specialists are in daily interaction with Perm carriers. A technical mobile team from the plant works in the city. In case of failures, all measures are taken to eliminate malfunctions. Including involving equipment suppliers that cause the failures. Spare parts warehouses are organized for prompt repairs,» — LiAZ informed 59.RU.

The reasons for the regularly occurring problems and their prolonged non-resolution were not specified by LiAZ representatives.

Earlier we reported why problems increased on the Zakamsk routes in early December, where new LiAZ buses also started running.