MP Dombrovska proposed to make public transport in Mykolaiv free of charge

Mykolaiv City Council member Tetiana Dombrovska. Photo: NikVesti

Tetyana Dombrovska, a member of the Mykolaiv City Council from the «Servant of the People» party, has proposed making public transport free for all city residents.

She made this proposal at a session of the Mykolaiv City Council on 30 October, according to NikVesti.

According to her, over the past five years, 1.7 billion hryvnias have been spent from the city budget on transportation, which is an average of more than 3,400 hryvnias per resident, regardless of whether they used the transport or not.

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She emphasised that free travel would be fairly implemented, as well as repairs to the offices of Mykolaiv City Council officials.

«There is a proposal, and I think the deputies support me, to make public transport free for all residents of Mykolaiv. It seems to me that this would be fair, given the unprecedented gap in comfort between officials who create comfortable conditions for themselves at the expense of the budget,» said Tetiana Dombrovska.

However, Mayor Oleksandr Sienkevych objected to her remarks and replied that apart from the windows that were damaged by the blast wave in 2022, no one was making repairs in the offices of officials.

«Can you give us some examples? I just visit the city council sometimes, and I haven't seen any repairs made to the offices to improve their conditions. There is a process in the city council to replace the windows that were broken back in '22 during the attack on the regional military administration. How else did these officials improve their conditions?» he replied.

«I'm all for making everyone comfortable. It seems to me that it would be comfortable for the people of Mykolaiv as well, because we spend a lot of money, 1.7 billion, and the people of Mykolaiv do not feel it,» the deputy said.

The mayor replied that the initiative is possible, but before that, it is necessary to calculate how much money will be received from transportation, taking into account the launch of new additional transport. This amount will be compensated by the budget to utility companies as a subsidy if the deputies support the proposal.

«We can make travel free. This idea was voiced by the chairman of the budget commission, Fedir Panchenko, at one of the budget commissions. After that, I had a conversation with him, explained to him what the figures were and how it would look. The head of the regional military administration, Vitalii Kim, also spoke about this recently. This idea cannot be decided by me personally, or by members of the executive committee, or by the director of the finance department. We will show the amount of money we received from transportation last year from passengers who used public transport and forecast the amount we plan to receive next year, taking into account the new 26 buses and the launch of new trolleybuses. If you and your deputies support the inclusion of free travel in the budget of the Mykolaiv City Council, we can support this,» said the mayor.

As you know, back in 2021, it was proposed to make public electric transport free in Mykolaiv. At the time, the head of the city council's budget committee, Fedir Panchenko, said that the city already allocates funds from the budget every year for the municipal enterprise «Mykolaivelectrotrans», and the company earns only about 10% of the need from ticket sales.

In 2018, Mykolaiv politician Oleksandr Sadykov, who was a member of the executive committee at the time, also proposed to abolish fares for public transport in the city.

As a reminder, free public transport in Kharkiv, which was introduced in May 2022, is planned to remain in place after the war ends. This was stated by Kharkiv Mayor Ihor Terekhov in an interview with «Ukrainska Pravda».