Transport

 PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION

As of year 1991, there has been a significant drop in the number of passengers traveling by public transport - from 830.6 million in 1991 it has plummeted to 246.3 million in 2001. In the beginning of the nineties many of the big factories and companies discontinued their operations, and number of employed fell sharply. At the same time there was a sharp rise in the number of private cars on streets. As a result, number of public transport passengers fell to a significant extent.

There are 23 trolleybus, 8 tram, 46 bus routes in Riga, as well as 14 taxi-bus and 42 route-taxi (minivan) routes. A significant number of public transport vehicles (222 buses, 49 taxi-buses, 230 route taxis, 260 trolleybuses and 172 trams) are running daily on 133 routes of the city's streets. (see Figure 52).

Regular passenger transportation with public transport vehicles in Riga is provided by companies of the municipality of Riga: tram and trolleybus company, bus company "Imanta" and bus company "Talava" as well as by 33 private companies that operate route taxis and taxi-buses. The issue of role of electrical trains in Riga, their development and integration (network structure, organization of points of transfer, unified tariff and time schedule system) within the overall transportation network of the city is still unclear.

Riga has a historically developed complex and unforeseeable route network; therefore one of the tasks to be accomplished in the nearest future is optimization of route network and introduction of a unified ticketing scheme for all modes of public transport.

Around 90% of passengers use services of the municipal public transport enterprises (see Figure 53) From 1996 till 2002 these companies have undertaken partial renovation of assets by utilization of loan funds provided by the World Bank in 1995 (total of 16.8 million US dollars) as well as investments of Riga City Council: 92 new buses, 57 trolleybuses were purchased, 166 tramcars were renovated.

After signature of delivery contracts with companies "Mercedes Benz" (Germany) and "Neoplan Polska" (Poland) in the nearest 5 years 79 "Mercedes Benz" and 148 "Neoplan Polska" buses and 58 midi buses manufactured by "Ikarus Special Coach Factory" (Hungary) will be purchased over the period of 2 years.

All new vehicles will be low-floor for more convenient ingress and egress of passengers, they will be equipped with an electronic information display both outside and inside the passenger compartment. These buses will also have a special place designated for wheelchairs, and a special lifting mechanism will provide an easy ingress on the bus, and in case of necessity, it will be possible to kneel the bus upon stopping at the kerb side.

The first private operators started to provide passenger transportation services in 1992, at the time when municipal public transport enterprises made a sharp cut on operations on non-profitable routes. Private operators have transported around 20,2 million passengers in year 2000, comprising around 8% of overall number of passengers transported in Riga.

There are 35 operators and 9 individual drivers providing taxi services in Riga. As of 01 January 2001 there are 1227 taxis registered in Riga.