THE VEHICLE FLEETS OF ALMA-ATA ARE ON THE BRINK OF BANKRUPTCY

The passenger transportation market in the largest city of Kazakhstan is in a state of potential collapse. The main reason is the pandemic and its consequences. The decline in revenue and the halved passenger flow makes the carriers literally sink in debt obligations. Local officials announce their intentions to improve the situation, but the fleet managers still cannot find the necessary support from the city authorities.

A significant part of Alma-Ata buses now only have one-third of passengers. The attempts of the transport workers to reduce the number of vehicles in the summer came across stiff opposition from the transport department.

Given that transportation in Kazakhstan is subsidized by the authorities, we are not talking about payback.

As a result, the heads of the enterprises are forced to release the entire fleet on the routes, paying for fuel consumption and drivers' salaries, despite the apparent lack of profitability of such administrative decisions.

Before the pandemic, many carriers planned to upgrade their fleets. The companies took loans to purchase new vehicles. Buses are purchased, but it remains to pay debts to the banks. However, the introduced state of emergency made adjustments - the enterprises gained the right for the loan payouts vacation. Now the vacation is over and the transporters will have to settle accounts with banks that do not plan to provide further deferrals. And all this in a situation when the vacation period for students began, many citizens switched to the remote work, and the senior citizens try to avoid long trips.

A landmark event for the market was the complete closure of one of the largest vehicle fleets in the city.

AvtoTransGaz Company failed to cope with financial problems. The remaining 17 fleets of the city may share the same fate, since almost all of them have debt obligations - this is how the CEO of the Union of Motor Vehicles of Kazakhstan Sabit Amanbaev commented on the situation. Twelve routes of AvtoTransGaz were transferred to the AlmatyElectroTrans municipal bus fleet and several other carriers. However, the passengers, remaining on the routes, have already faced an excessively long wait for transport at the bus stops.

The experts believe that the main reason for the bankruptcy of the fleets of Alma-Ata may be the problem of paying subsidies. The fact is that the prices of the bus ticket have not changed for a long time. For the past 8 years, people have been paying 80 tenge (about 14 rubles) for a trip, while the real cost calculated by the special city commission on tariffs is 173 tenge (30 rubles).

The difference to the transport workers was compensated by the city authorities in order to avoid social tension.

However, the local budget allocated for these purposes has been rapidly reducing, as well as the passenger traffic. Many enterprises are used to begin the preparations for the winter season in summer, buying winter tires, cooling liquids and antifreeze. Now the winter season may be on the verge of collapse.