The head of Mykolaivpastrans responded to Dombrovska: I support free travel, but without guarantees it will end in debt and collapse

Dmytro Teslenko, Director of Municipal Enterprise «Mykolaivpastrans». Photo: Mykolaiv City Council

Dmytro Teslenko, Director of Municipal Enterprise «Mykolaivpastrans», commented on the initiative to introduce free travel in Mykolaiv's public transport. He supports this idea, but only if the company is reimbursed for its expenses from the city budget in full and on time.

He wrote about this on his Facebook page.

«I support the idea of free travel for citizens in public transport. But only in a fair way. As they say, «free lunch is the most expensive». If the passenger does not pay, the city should compensate for the costs. In full, on time and without delay», wrote Dmytro Teslenko.

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He stressed that in the absence of financial guarantees, such an initiative could lead to disruption of flights, wear and tear on vehicles, debts and transport collapse.

«I'm «for» — if there is approved funding and guarantees of full and timely revenues for MEs. I am not interested in populism. I am interested in ensuring that transport runs tomorrow, in a year and always — honestly, and not at the expense of quality, safety and transport workers», — said the head of «Mykolaivpastrans».

It is worth noting that Dmytro Teslenko's post is a response to a proposal by Tetiana Dombrovska, a member of the Mykolaiv City Council from the «Servant of the People» party. At a session on 31 October, she proposed to make public transport free for all city residents.

Mykolaiv City Council member Tetiana Dombrovska. Photo: NikVesti

Following the deputy's proposal, Mayor Oleksandr Sienkevych said that the initiative was possible, but that it was necessary to calculate how much revenue would be generated 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.

As you know, back in 2021, Mykolaiv proposed to make public electric transport free of charge. At the time, the head of the city council's budget commission, Fedir Panchenko, said that the city already allocates funds from the budget every year for the municipal enterprise «Mykolaivelektrotrans», 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».