Tbilisi City Hall to Introduce Subscription System for Public Transport from February

By Natalia Kochiashvili

Friday, December 24

The change will be introduced from February 1, and the sale of season tickets will be available from January 5 at the Metro box office, as well as at the express branches of the Bank of Georgia.

Tbilisi Transport Company is one of the largest employers, the company employs 6,400 people. GEL118 million was spent on their salaries in 2020.

Tbilisi City Hall presented a plan to change municipal transport tariffs from 2022. According to the plan, a single trip, which used to cost 50 tetri, will cost GEL1. Subscriber system packages costs for unlimited travel look like this: 90-minute card - GEL1; One-day card - GEL3; One-week card - GEL20. Several categories of season tickets were also established, costing GEL40 per month; 3 months - GEL100; 6 months - GEL150; One year - GEL250.

According to Tbilisi Mayor Kakha Kaladze, all preferential programs for a number of community groups remain in force. The right to free travel will be enjoyed by: Visually impaired persons registered in Tbilisi, their accompanying persons; Schoolkids; District inspectors and st. Employees of Operative Main Division of Tbilisi Police Dept; Employees of Tbilisi Municipal Kindergartens; Veterans of the military forces, etc.

70,000 citizens living Tbilisi with a low rating score registered in the ‘Unified Database of Socially Vulnerable Families’ will travel for an unchanged cost of 10 tetris.

Tbilisi City Hall has been working on the transition to the subscription system and the renewal of tariffs for a long time, and the introduced change has laid the basis for speculations that the purpose of the change is to stabilize the financial situation of the Tbilisi Transport Company (TTC), which lost GEL150 million in 2020 due to the pandemic crisis. Payment by cards issued by TTC will be possible in mini buses as well. Accordingly, the company subordinated to the City Hall also partly becomes the payment operator of the private network of mini buses.

The revenue of the TTC was sharply reduced in 2020 due to the pandemic situation and the stagnant traffic. In 2019 the revenue of the company from transportation services was GEL139.4 million, in 2020 the revenue decreased by 48% and amounted to GEL72.2 million. The company had a loss even before the pandemic - in 2019 its loss was GEL71.3 million, and in 2020 the loss doubled.

Significant share of the income of the TTC comes from the subsidy. According to the existing model, different categories of citizens travel at a reduced rate. For example, the student fee is 20 tetri, but the Tbilisi City Hall reimburses the rest of the amount to the transport company, i.e.students pay 20 tetri, and the City Hall adds 30 tetri to the operation. Commuting is free for students, and in their case, Tbilisi City Hall pays 50 tetri.

In 2020, TTC received GEL35.6 million in travel subsidies from City Hall, and in 2019 - GEL68.5 million. This means that 40% -45% of the company's revenue comes from subsidies received from the City Hall.

Since 2018, the company has been the operator of the Tbilisi parking system and is responsible for monitoring 30,000 parking spaces throughout the city. In 2020, the company's revenue from parking was GEL5.6 million.

TTC is currently working on the renewal of the bus network and the rehabilitation of the metro. According to the company, an additional 180 units of 8-meter buses and 18-meter buses are planned to be purchased. The EBRD also plans to purchase 40 subway cars, build a new depot and rehabilitate the tunnel. The company's assets amount to GEL531 million.

The faction ‘Tbilisi for Georgia’ demands explanations from the Tbilisi Mayor regarding the new system of public transport payment and asks for temporary suspension of this system at the Sakrebulo sitting.

Giorgi Sharashidze, a faction member from ‘For Georgia’ stated that after the introduction of the new payment system in public transport, the one-time service fee will be doubled and the citizen will have to pay one GEL instead of 50 tetri. According to him, in the light of raging pandemic and record inflation, raising costs as a result of this reform is unacceptable.