Why are buses burn in St. Petersburg

In St. Petersburg in June and July four buses launched instead of minibuses as part of transport reform. Each time there were passengers inside, but no one was injured - everyone managed to leave the salon when smoking. At first, only buses from Belarus were burning, because of which Alexander Lukashenko commented on the situation, but in July fires occurred already on Russian-made buses.

The authorities talk about the consequences of sanctions, but argue that the situation is “under control”. "Paper" says what is known about burning buses in St. Petersburg.

Over the summer in St. Petersburg four buses lit up: two in June and two in July

For a month with a small in St. Petersburg, four new buses lit up on the route as part of transport reform in different parts of the city.

On June 10, the bus caught fire on Vitebsky Prospekt. The passengers managed to leave the salon, no one was injured. Fire destroyed all the combustible parts of the machine.

On June 23, the bus caught fire on the move on Svetlanovsky Prospekt. Passengers again managed to leave the salon before anyone suffered. After that, the carrier-carrier "Domtransavto" promised to remove the routes from the routes and send all the MAZ-203947 buses for the examination.

July 15 - on the start of the final stage of the transport reform - the bus caught fire on Plaerennaya Street. Passengers were not injured, and the driver knocked the flame on his own before the arrival of the firefighters.

On July 16, the bus caught fire on the corner of Korolev and Shavrov streets. There were no victims again, and the Ministry of Emergency Situations reported that the engine compartment buried in the bus.

Fires occurred in two commercial carriers out of four. Both Belarusian and Russian buses burned

The operator of buses burned in June is the Domtransavto company near Moscow. Both times, MAZ-203947 buses burned in Belarus and working on liquefied natural gas. Domodedovo company Domtransavto began serving St. Petersburg buses only after the launch of transport reform in April.

On July 15 and 16, on the glider and on the corner of Korolev and Shavrov, LIAZ-5292 buses were burned , respectively, they are produced in the Moscow region, serves their third park , one of the largest carriers of the North-West of Russia, which has been working in the city for more than 60 years.

In total, in St. Petersburg, four commercial carriers are served by public transport (contracts for them were distributed a year ago as part of preparation for transport reform):

• The St. Petersburg company Vest-Service, which is part of the St. Petersburg holding (167 routes).
• St. Petersburg "Third Park" (113 routes).
• Domosvo "Domtransavto" (56 routes).
• The Petersburg Taxi, whose leader Tatyana Kalyuzhnaya is associated with Valentina Matvienko (11 routes).

In the first two cases, the cause of the fire could be the replacement of imported parts on the buses, they said in Smolny. But the authorities do not give accurate information

After the first two fires, the vice-governor of St. Petersburg Kirill Polyakov, responsible for the transport direction (until June 7, he headed the transport committee, including during preparation for reform and at its start), contacted the MAZ plant, which sent its specialists to St. Petersburg. The plant experts then suggested that the combustion began in the engine compartment due to oil from the fan hydraulic drive system to the hot parts of the engine.

At the same time, Polyakov noted that the cooling and hydraulic drive systems on the MAZ-203 series have not been changed since 2005, as they have established themselves reliable and safe. The plant experts admit that due to the sanctions imposed on Russia and Belarus due to Russian invasion of Ukraine, proven flanges with similar characteristics were replaced by hydraulic drives, but not proven. This hypothesis was confirmed by the inspection of charred buses, Polyakov wrote.

Who exactly replaced the flanges is not specified, - Polyakov writes that the replacement could happen "during deliveries." According to the vice-governor, MAZ began to make the necessary analogues of details with full control to replace them. The authorities promised to additionally check the subsequent deliveries of buses for leaks in the hydraulic drive systems.

Later, the acting head of Komtrans Valentin Enokaev said that two June fires had different reasons. “In one case there was one element, in the other - [problem] in the engine. The expert commission could not establish any systematic problem, ”the official said.

“Paper” sent a request to the Transport Committee, but at the time of writing the material did not receive an answer.

Experts after the June fires began to say that the problem may be in the technique supplied by the MAZ plant. However, in the last two cases, the fire occurred on Liaz buses, which are produced in Domodedovo, Moscow Region. The Paper Transport Committee then reported that the exact cause of the fire will establish an examination.

Begs mainly ignores the problem. In Comterans they say that the situation is "under control"

The day after the second fire, St. Petersburg was visited by President of Belarus, Alexander Lukashenko. At a meeting with him, as the press service of Smolny wrote, the city governor Alexander Beglov said that "Belarusian technology satisfies all modern quality and safety requirements."

More fugitives did not comment on the situation with buses. However, Lukashenko stated that in his personal conversation, Beglov told him that news about fires "did not even stand attention." The President of Belarus said that it was "just some kind of closure there."

After the fourth fire , the “paper” in Komtrans said that the situation with the fire of the buses “is under control”.

Although a series of fires coincided with transport reform, the authorities are appealed to the sanctions pressure, this has already happened in Russia. So, in February 2019, four buses lit up in Moscow in Moscow. Fires were repeated during the year, but the authorities did not comment on the causes of what happened.

After fires on two buses of the MAZ carrier "Domtransavto" Smolny clarified where the problems are still possible

Update on July 22. After two MAZ buses burned, the city authorities clarified where fires are still possible, Fontanka reports . According to the sources of the publication, the carrier "Third Park" pointed to one of the models of the LiAZ. After a couple of weeks, it was she who caught fire.

The reason, according to the publication, is the same as for MAZ buses - fluid flow from the flanges of the hydraulic drive.

What else to read:

• "My height is 168, and my legs do not fit into the space between the seats." How Petersburgers criticize the second stage of transport reform .
• The cancellation of minibuses, cash refusal and new tariffs. The main thing about transport reform in St. Petersburg .