Experts Explain Why Ufa Lacks Night Buses to Airport
Experts say that passengers must first and foremost have confidence that they can leave.
Residents of Ufa on social media are asking why there are no night buses from the airport to the city: they say there are night flights, but no buses. The Ministry of Transport of Bashkortostan said that such a route existed but was not in demand. However, this is not the only reason. UFA1.RU studied the ministry«s response and asked experts from the »Ufa Transport« community to comment on it.
The ministry says that when planning bus schedules, they look at passenger flow. They try to distribute buses so that there are enough vehicles for all passengers in different parts of the city, and adjust the schedule to suit different times of day, especially during «peak hours» when many people are commuting to or from work.
The Ministry of Transport believes that night routes would be unprofitable: even if passengers arrive in the city, they would then have to get to their homes. This means that buses would need to run to districts at night.
The ministry recalled route No. 101k, which ran from the Southern Bus Station to the airport: in less than four years, it completed 3.6 thousand trips and transported 10.5 thousand passengers, meaning on average buses carried three passengers (or, as they say in professional slang, «carried air»).
UFA1.RU turned to experts from the «Ufa Transport» community in an attempt to understand if night buses can be organized, like in Moscow?
According to the State Unitary Enterprise «Mosgortrans,» 18 night buses operate in the Russian capital: for example, n1 runs to/from Sheremetyevo Airport. The others are distributed from north to south with a mandatory stop in the center — at Kitay-Gorod metro station. Two more routes run around the clock on the Garden Ring — in both directions. The interval is from 15 to 30 minutes.
As experts told UFA1.RU, first of all, the schedule needs to be adjusted to planes and trains. Second, and most importantly, to establish stability.
«Passengers must have a guarantee that they can leave. And only then can success be achieved. We have problems with this. Even in Moscow, the system of night routes did not start working immediately,» experts note.
Let«s examine the schedule of two popular routes (as of February 1):
Bus No. 101 (via the center, «Sportivnaya» and the Southern Station to Dzerzhinsky) — the first trip from the airport at 06:20. Before this time, 9 flights arrive in Ufa, whose passengers cannot catch the bus.
Bus No. 110 (via the center and the avenue to Chernikova) — the first bus from the airport at 06:35. Passengers from the same 11 flights will not be able to leave on it.
Regarding night trains, the situation is as follows:
Bus No. 101 performs its first trip from the station towards the airport at 05:48. Before this time, two trains arrive.
The last trip is performed at 21:08 — after this time, five trains arrive.
Bus No. 74 (via the Central Market, Chernikova and the avenue to Inors) performs its first trip from the station at 07:35. Ten minutes before it, one train arrives.
The last — at 23:35, after which three trains arrive.
«Most bus trips exist separately from other types of transport. As an example, consider the »Orlan« (Ufa — Orenburg — Ufa). It arrives at 21:30, but leaving the station is a whole adventure. The tram schedule is adjusted to it, but we have no drivers and the second shift is not serviced. And the bus runs haphazardly. The 101 is already gone, the 3 ends just before the arrival of the »Orlan«. And when the 74 will be is a lottery,» explain UFA1.RU experts from «Ufa Transport».
They emphasize that similarly happens with planes.
Moreover, authorities have repeatedly spoken about a shortage of drivers, due to which buses do not arrive on schedule: if one driver drops out, there is no one to replace him. Especially in light of corruption scandals in «Bashavtotrans,» after which several people were fired or sent to colony.
