Kharkiv Mayor and Head of the Association of Frontline Cities and Communities of Ukraine (AFCC) Ihor Terekhov says that the introduction of free transit in the city after the start of Russia's full-scale invasion was a conscious and unavoidable decision necessary to support city residents and internally displaced persons, but it became possible under conditions of a complete absence of private carriers.
"This is not some experiment – this is a conscious decision, because there was no other choice and there cannot be during a war, especially for such large cities as Kharkiv. Today Kharkiv has 1.3 million residents, among whom 217,000 are internally displaced persons, do not forget about that. In addition – some know, some do not – but we also feed people for free once a day, every day we distribute 58,000 portions... This is, of course, support for every family. Some may criticize this decision, some may support it, but we have indeed done what no one else has managed to do yet – all of our transport is communally owned by the city of Kharkiv. We do not have private carriers, unlike in other cities," Terekhov said in an exclusive interview with Interfax-Ukraine.
According to him, the introduction of such a model in other cities is hindered precisely by the presence of private carriers. "They distribute these routes, they have certain contractual terms, and they collect funds from private carriers, and that is all. In our case, if you take the metro – and it has the highest rates of additional funding in all cities – and take the trams and trolleybuses, they are not private, but communal. And every city today subsidizes these types of transport. But as for the city of Kharkiv, we decided to make transit free. This is our responsibility and our mission to the people, so that people are in more or less comfortable conditions. Because today, no other city in Ukraine has such destruction as Kharkiv... Today we need to support our people and do everything to make them stay in the city, so that they respect their city, and Kharkiv residents adore their city," the mayor said.
At the same time, the mayor said that this decision requires more and more funding.
"Today, free transit is not an easy decision. Yes, it requires funding and this need is increasing. When we started the budget year, the price of energy was one thing, but now it is completely different, it has increased. It has increased both for fuel and lubricants and for electricity. But we are holding on, doing everything to maintain public transport. And my goal is for Kharkiv to have free public transport both during the war and after the war ends. Because we have examples of other cities. How to do this? In many ways, it will depend on how we design the economic model of Kharkiv, what the city budget will be, how quickly we reconstruct, recover, and how we build our own generation system," Terekhov said.
He also said that he intends to develop the tram network in Kharkiv after the war on a different technological level than what currently exists, and reported that even before the war, negotiations were underway to organize a joint venture for the manufacture of new rolling stock.
"I really want the war to end, and we will do a great deal regarding tram routes. At one time, we had a foreign consultant with whom we worked using grant funds from an international financial institution, and we have developed a feasibility study showing which routes are appropriate to keep, in which districts to increase them, and how to do it... I really want us to have trams, first of all, of our own production, jointly with investors, of a completely different class, and running on completely different rails," the mayor said.
He also said that he does not intend to close existing lines in the city, as happened in past years, including during the war. "We will not make mistakes... In no case will we remove anything; we will only expand," Terekhov said.
