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Russian trams cut pollution, improve transport

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Transport Director Panin.

Driver Kachinovskaya.

Workshop repairs.

It was over 100 years ago, when Krasnodar was still called Ekaterinodar (gift from Catherine) that the city’s first tram hit the rails. That one was horse drawn and made in Belgium. Since then the trams have only stopped running once – for six months during the Second World War. “They are the face of the city,” says Vladimir Voronkin, Deputy Mayor. ”We could stop anything, but not the trams. The people wouldn’t have it!”

Unfortunately for the people, the 300 trams running in Krasnodar are now at least 20 years old, many of them lacking basic comfort and safety features; 15 per cent of them at any one time are in the shop being repaired.

This is why the EBRD is investing €10.4 million in helping the Krasnodar Tram and Trolleybus Company buy 50 brand new trams to serve the city’s 800,000-strong population, 90 per cent of whom use the trams. Transport is hugely important to Krasnodar, a hub city on the Kuban river less than 150 kilometers from both the Black and the Azov seas. The tram and trolleybus systems alone employ over 3,500 people. 

One-third less power needed

“The new trams use 30 per cent less electricity and they are much more comfortable, with much better conditions for the drivers,” says Anatoly Panin. He has been Director of the municipally-owned Krasnodar Public Transport Company for 17 years.

Mr Panin practically bounces with enthusiasm for the new trams, using the diminutive tramvaichiki to refer to them. “Look at this beauty,” he says, showing off one of two new trams already delivered from a supplier in Siberia, far away on the other side of the Urals.

“We bought Russian ones in the end because we already know the technology and I can work with the suppliers who are like a family to me. There’s no formality. I asked them to deliver early for Krasnodar’s birthday (a public holiday with parties, performances and fireworks) and it was no problem,” he says, leaning out of his car window to loudly chastise a tram driver who was smoking on the job.

Easing pollution

Catherine the Great gave Krasnodar to the Cossacks in 1793 in return for border protection. She’d hardly recognise it now. “Look. What do you think my average speed would be in the car?” ask Mr Panin. The traffic congestion in central Krasnodar is appalling, the air full of choking fumes, thousands of cars virtually stationary and blocking all the main thoroughfares. “It’s eight kilometers an hour. Eight! And look at that tram!” A tram obligingly hurtles past on its gleaming rails. “Average 17 kilometers an hour. There’s no competition.”

The idea behind the new tram project is to encourage people to get back on to public transport and away from their cars. Russia’s public transport system as a whole carries around 37 billion passengers a year and it has 72 cities with tram networks, more than any other country.

In Krasnodar alone, electric transport (trams and trolleybuses) have a 62 per cent market share and, at six roubles, less than one Euro, per journey, Mr Panin considers them to be a bargain. “Virtually free!” The company makes €2 million a month in fares and another million in advertising on the sides of trams and banners strung above the streets.

Happy birthday, dear town

The two brand new trams were rolled into action for the city’s birthday parade on September 26, 2006. One wore a banner on the front, saying; ‘Happy Birthday, Dear Town!’ The new trams’ capacity is the same as that of the old – 35 people seated, 125 standing. “I reckon people are going to be looking forward to going to work on these. They’ll all be talking about it on Monday, saying; ‘Which one did you get on?”’ Mr Panin laughs. 

Lilya Kachinovskaya, who has driven Krasnodar’s trams for 20 years, is practising driving with the new controls. She will be driving this one on an 8am-to-10pm shifts. “I love this, it’s so much easier to drive and so comfy,” she grins.

The fleet of new trams would not have been possible without the EBRD’s investment. “There is a warm friendly atmosphere between ourselves and the bank,’ says Mr Voronkin, the Deputy Mayor who is in charge of the city’s transport. “We have been getting to know them for four years, trying to come up with exactly the right project. There is a lot of goodwill. Our town is definitely attracting European businesses and our relationship with the EBRD is obviously helping that to happen. It is perfect for us as their long-term credit system is well-geared to our needs as a public administration.’”

Donor funding totalling €610,000 was provided by Austria, the European Union and Germany to assist the city transport company with its pre-loan investment plan, restructuring and procurement.

Back at the tram park, Mr Panin is inspecting the transport workshop where mechanics beaver away repairing the old rolling stock. Next to the workshop is a notice board where photographs of the month’s best workers are posted, a still-used and endearing vestige of the Soviet era. “I aim to have 100 per cent of my trams working 100 per cent of the time,” he says. “I’d rather have fewer trams than have 300 trams, like now, with so many of them in the workshop.” Now, at last, his goal of reliable transport is on its way to being realised.

By Anna Blundy, EBRD Communications Consultant
Contact: Municipal and environmental infrastructure

10 November 2006