A week after Yerevan Mayor Tigran Avinyan condemned fare evasion in public transport and called for stronger oversight, City Hall staff briefed him that tap-ins had increased by nearly 30%, generating an additional 235 million drams in revenue.

The Head of the Technology Management Center of Yerevan, an agency responsible for installing and maintaining management and information systems in the municipal sphere, Sargis Manukyan, said at a City Hall executive meeting that over the past two weeks, from April 6 to 19, 5,997,277 ticket validations were registered in public transport, marking a 29.9% increase compared to 4,657,751 in the previous two-week period.

Manukyan credited the increase to oversight measures in public transport.

Yerevan Mayor Tigran Avinyan said that during the reporting period, an additional 235 million drams were collected compared to the previous two weeks.

“This shows that, although our new method may create certain inconveniences, it is nevertheless quite effective in terms of collection and discipline. In fact, within two weeks we have collected enough funds—thanks to payments from previously non-paying passengers—to cover the cost of around eight new buses,” the mayor said.

He added that fare evasion in public transport is also one of the reasons why it has not been possible to expand the public transport fleet.

Despite this, according to Avinyan, 45 newly purchased trolleybuses will arrive in Yerevan in the near future, and a procurement request will be prepared for 170 buses.