The FINANCIAL — The number of passengers using municipal transport – buses and the metro – increased by 16% in Q1 2014, compared to the same period of the previous year. A total of 52,907,775 passengers were served by Tbilisi Transport Company (TTC) in Q1 of 2014. Contrary to 2013, buses have become the more preferable mode of transportation for Tbilisi residents.
The total number of passengers served by TTC in 2013 amounted to 219.78 million. More than 23 million passengers used the metro in Q1 2013, which was 2 million more than the number of bus passengers. In Q1 2014 over 4 million travellers preferred the bus to the metro. So, while the number of metro users increased by 3% in 2014, in comparison with 2013 the number of bus passengers increased by 30.6%.
In total, 20.23 million passengers were served by Tbilisi Transport Company in October 2013. This was the busiest period of the year for the company. The other busiest months, defined by having the largest number of passengers, were November when the number amounted to 19.69 million passengers and December which had 19.62 million. August is the least active period for TTC. The number of passengers in the last month of the summer was 13.25 million in 2013. The next least busy months are February, with 14.12 million and January with 14.48 million.
Out of the total number of passengers, 80,365,366 travellers were served with various privileged rates.
The average monthly expenditure of passengers taking municipal transport amounted to GEL 3,917,170 in 2013. This sum was slightly less in 2012 when it amounted to GEL 3,567,754.
The accrued income of TTC in 2013 was GEL 106,966,519. This sum has now increased by GEL 24 million in comparison with the previous year.
Before the end of the current year, TTC plans to offer various innovative projects to its customers.
“In 2013, the company has completed its joint project with Google. The company integrated the transport information of Tbilisi Metro and bus routes, stops and schedules with Google’s system (Google Transit). The service was under a trial period for several months due to Google’s quite strict and high standards relating to politics. Google Transit is part of Google Maps and enables the user to arrange their trip by public transport. All the developed cities worldwide are involved in this project. Tbilisi joined the list of these cities in 2014,” Tamaz Robakidze, Marketing and PR Manager at Tbilisi Transport Company LTD, told The FINANCIAL.
TTC will soon launch a mobile application for smart phones operating on Android and IOS platforms. The company will also offer a mobile version of its website. New timers will be introduced in Tbilisi metro stations. The current timers only take into account the time when the last train left whereas the new version will show how many minutes until the next train arrives.
Installation of electrical boards on bus stops will also continue this year. A total of 50 new electrical boards will be installed by the end of 2014.
The modernization of all metro carriages is also being planned. “Various projects are also being developed for increasing the safety of public transport. It includes the modernization of dispatchers (energy safety, etc.) and also infrastructure issues,” said Robakidze.
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