Transport revolution in Yerevan. Routes will be changed, means of transport will be reduced

On January 18, the first session of this year’s professional working group on public transport reforms of Yerevan was held. The head of the working group, the deputy mayor of Yerevan, Vahe Nikoyan, presented the project of the new public transport network developed by the consulting company WYG, which will undergo a professional study by the members of the working group and will be finalized after appropriate observations and suggestions.

Vahe Nikoyan noted that the network project is the basis for the formation of a new public transport system, and this is one of the decisive stages of the entire reform process. Accordingly, it is necessary to take into account all the features and observations of the professional group and the public before the final version is approved. 

It was noted that with the new project, the specialists of the consulting organization were able to solve the most important problem at the basis of the reform, offering optimal solutions. In particular, the new project proposes to reduce the number of existing vehicles and lines by three times. Accordingly, instead of the current 115 route lines, 42 routes will operate, and instead of the existing 2039 vehicles, 939 vehicles will operate. According to the logic of the new network, vehicles, unlike the existing system, will operate on the principle of complementarity.

“Repeated lines will be excluded with the presented project. At the same time, vehicles will be equally accessible in all parts of the capital, providing safe, reliable and proper service for passengers. To the credit of the consulting organization, I must mention that a really thorough work was done in designing the new network, thanks to which the number of existing vehicles and lines is reduced by about three times, which were previously formed as a result of situational solutions and as such did not form a logical network. It should also be noted that the existing routes were not the basis for the design of the new network,” said Vahe Nikoyan.

According to the project, the new network is intended for a complete integrated system of buses, trolleybuses and metro and excludes the operation of minibuses. In addition, a number of norms related to the capacity and technical capabilities of roads and current bus stops, the volume of passenger flows, and the frequency of vehicle arrivals were taken into account.

Let’s remind that the design of a professionally based public transport network, as such, was implemented for the first time in Armenia.

The professional study and final approval of the new network will be followed by work on other stages of the reform, as well as broad public awareness of the features of the new network.