St. Petersburg Transport Committee Press Service St. Petersburg
Political scientist, representative of the Movement of Civil Initiatives Vladimir Soloveichik evaluated the results of the transport reform carried out by Smolny in St. Petersburg. He noted that the work of the city authorities in this direction is nothing more than a “troika with a big minus.”
Saint Petersburg began to switch to a new model of transport service on April 1, 2022. Meanwhile, Smolny, led by Alexander Beglov, could not improve the situation on the roads. Citizens complain that the authorities’ initiative has only aggravated their problems.
“They worked for the first three, but with a big minus,” Soloveichik summed up transport reform.
The social activist divided the process of transition to the NMTO into two stages: the first lasted from April to June, when the transport bloc was overseen by former deputy governor Maxim Sokolov. He rated his work a “solid two”. According to Soloveichik, the situation improved after Kirill Polyakov took over from Sokolov.
Among the main negative consequences of transport reform, Soloveichik previously cited fare problems and regular fires in passenger buses.
