Written on the water

Yuri Luzhkov approved a new concept for the development of a river passenger bus system

Apparently, the financial crisis has somewhat shifted the plans of Moscow transport workers to develop the water space of the metropolis for mass passenger transportation. In the spring of 2008, at the beginning of navigation, city officials claimed that the first high-speed catamaran of the river bus type, designed for 60 passengers, would appear this year. However, according to the “Concept of the city target program for creating a system of intermodal passenger transportation in the city of Moscow using inland water transport for 2011-2013”, signed recently by Mayor Yuri Luzhkov, the pilot line will appear no earlier than in two years.

In general, some kind of systematic passenger river service, as officials plan, will be established at best no earlier than 2013, although its creation may take up to seven years. The city's Department of Transport and Communications calls the longest option for implementing the future program, although capital-intensive (it will require up to 820 million rubles of investment), but optimistic. In particular, it provides for the “wide development of the route network.” First of all, urban transport workers, at the expense of investors, will need to equip 19 floating berths and purchase 68 catamaran vessels. The cost of one high-speed vessel, accommodating enough passengers so that the cost of travel on water transport corresponds to the tariffs of land transport, according to officials, is 11.2 million rubles. As Vadim Ermilin, chief specialist of the transport systems development department of the capital’s Department of Transport and Communications, previously told Vremya Novostey, the fare “according to feasibility studies will be about 35 rubles. due to the turnover of the vessel."

Moscow transport workers expect a serious effect from the new transport system. According to their calculations, during the navigation period, river buses will serve more than 60 thousand passengers per day. And if they do not bring the transport system as a whole out of collapse, including due to the seasonality of this type of transportation, then at least they will save passengers living near the Moscow River up to 10% of the time spent on travel.

The routes will be coordinated with stops of other types of urban transport. Thus, the river bus line “Business Center (Moscow City) - Kyiv Station - Luzhniki - Central Park of Culture and Culture - Golden Island - Kitaigorodsky Ave." with a length of 17 km, according to the calculations of transport workers, it will allow waterways to connect the metro stations of the Tagansko-Krasnopresnenskaya, Kaluzhsko-Rizhskaya, Sokolnicheskaya, Arbatsko-Pokrovskaya, Koltsevaya and Filevskaya lines, bypassing the central transfer stations. Another route - "Pechatniki Pier (metro station of the same name) - Kolomenskaya metro station - Novospassky Bridge (Krestyanskaya Zastava metro station) - Kitaygorodsky Ave. (Kitay-Gorod metro station)" at 19 km will allow, bypassing the center, to establish communication between the stations of the Lyublinskaya, Zamoskvoretskaya, Serpukhovskaya, Tagansko-Krasnopresnenskaya, Kaluzhsko-Rizhskaya metro lines, as well as the Paveletsky direction of the Moscow Railway. Another 20 km along the Moscow River from the Swan pier (Voikovskaya metro station) through Khimki and Dolgoprudny to the Paltsevo berths (near Sheremetyevo airport) and Kapustino (Dmitrovskoe highway, yacht clubs) will connect the stations of the Zamoskvoretskaya line metro and Savelovskoe direction of the Moscow Railway. In addition, in the future, the route from the Krasnogorsk pier (Pavshinskaya Poyma) through Crocus Expo to the Shchukinskaya metro station will allow connecting the stations of the blue and purple metro lines by water.

True, the concept calls a much less ambitious version of the development of events more realistic. “The implementation of the recommended option involves two stages - the opening of a pilot line, which will require the acquisition of ten catamaran vessels and the arrangement of six floating berths in the city. The expected volume of traffic on the pilot line is about 9 thousand passengers,” the document says. And only if the first route is successfully implemented will the project be implemented in full. As a result, by 2013 there could be a water communication system of 16 floating berths and 42 river buses with a length of only 41 km. The cost of such a project, according to officials, will cost investors up to 510 million rubles.

Let us recall that the first three experimental water taxi routes, introduced in 2007 by the State Unitary Enterprise “Moscow Shores” at the instigation of the Moscow mayor’s office, the seats in which cost 400-500 rubles, did not justify themselves as public transport. “They worked to zero. And although they were in demand, they were not used every day and, of course, were mainly used for walking,” officials complained then. It is noteworthy that in the new project, transport workers stipulate in advance the possibility of disruption of the program due to a sharp change in prices for energy resources and ship production. In addition, the developers apparently do not rule out water traffic jams. “The creation of a network of water passenger transport, especially in the central part of the city, will create certain problems,” the document stipulates. “The carrying capacity of the water area of ​​the Moscow River and the canal, which is now used mainly for excursion and entertainment purposes, will decrease somewhat.”

Yulia KHOMCHENKO