Public Transport Prices to Climb This Summer
Published: May 16, 2012 (Issue # 1708)
City Hall has announced that public transportation ticket prices will increase by two rubles beginning either June 1 or July 1, Fontanka news website reported.
St. Petersburg Governor Georgy Poltavchenko said the rise in prices was made necessary by the 2.8-billion-ruble ($92.2-million) increase — a rise of 9.1 percent — in the expenses of the public transport sector compared with 2011. The reason for the cost increase was inflation, Poltavchenko said.
The city also needs to recover the money it spent on new metro trains and the opening of new metro stations. Admiralteiskaya station opened at the end of 2011 and Mezhdunarodnaya is due to open by the end of this year.
In order not to increase public transport fees, City Hall would have needed to allocate another billion rubles ($33 milliion) to the public transport sector.
Individual bus, trolley and tram tickets will cost 23 rubles ($0.76) and a metro journey will cost 27 rubles ($0.89). The cost of a universal tram, trolley bus, bus and metro monthly pass will go up by 4.8 percent to 1,710 rubles ($56).
This year was the first in the last few years when the cost of public transport tickets did not increase from January 1. The need to increase ticket prices was discussed before the beginning of 2012, but City Hall did not reportedly want to raise prices before the presidential election.
Meanwhile, marshrutkas (commercial mini-buses) raised their ticket prices back in April. Prices increased by five rubles on average.
The last time public transport prices increased in St. Petersburg was in January 2011.