Two hours to get home from the city centre: Mykolaiv residents complain again about transport to the Korabelnyi district

An evening trip to the Korabelnyi district through the eyes of passengers. Photo: NikVesti

Residents of the Korabelnyi district of Mykolaiv are once again complaining about problems with the evening public transport schedule. They say they have to wait for hours to get home.

They reported this in letters to the editor of NikVesti, as well as in comments under the publication's posts on social media.

According to Mykolaiv residents, in the evening, transport to the Korabelnyi district runs infrequently and sometimes disappears from the route altogether. Because of this, people are forced to stand for a long time at bus stops in the cold and ice, not knowing if they will be able to get home today.

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«Sometimes I'm already in the city centre, but I can't get home. In the Korabelnyi district, you wait an hour for a bus. You stand there and don't know whether you'll be able to travel today or not. When it's cold and slippery, it's especially difficult,» said city resident Svitlana Kotova.

Zakhar Moiseienko, a resident of the Korabelnyi district, reported a similar situation. According to him, one evening it took him more than two hours to get home.

«Getting from the centre to the Korabelny district is a quest for survival. I arrived at the bus stop at 8:10 p.m. and got home at 10:20 p.m. That's two hours and ten minutes. In that time, you could get to Odesa, but in Mykolaiv, we can't cover the distance between districts for hours,» he wrote.

The Mykolaiv resident notes that in the evening, buses to the Korabelnyi district run once an hour, and sometimes even less frequently, although about 100,000 people live there. When the transport does arrive, it is overcrowded.

«Almost 100,000 people live in the district, and they run one bus per hour, or even less. The streets are icy, it's windy, -10 degrees, but it feels like -16. People stand and wait for hours,» says Zakhar Moiseienko.

Residents also complain about the behaviour of drivers. According to them, passengers are not always allowed on the bus, with the driver citing the timetable as the reason. Taxis are an alternative, but in the evening the cost of a trip can reach 500 hryvnias.

«One bus arrives, packed to the brim, and the driver closes the doors in front of you and says he has to follow the schedule. Taxi drivers take advantage of this and charge 500 hryvnias. As a result, people either spend a lot of money or are forced to stay late at work,» he adds.

The municipal enterprise Mykolaivpastrans explains the transport disruptions by difficult weather conditions. As the enterprise's press secretary Kateryna Stokolias told NikVesti, some buses broke down due to frost and ice.

In particular, on 31 January, due to severe icy conditions, some sections of the roads became almost impassable, and freezing rain turned the carriageway into a skating rink. On that day, Mykolaivpastrans buses also replaced trolleybuses on electric transport routes, in particular to Matviivka, so that people could get home.

«There were disruptions due to the cold weather. The buses are not new, so they react differently to difficult weather conditions. Our specialists are trying to fix the malfunctions as quickly as possible so that the buses can return to service. During the days of severe icy conditions, traffic was delayed,» she said.

The company also confirmed that the long evening intervals are due to the limited number of buses. The schedules are designed so that drivers do not work more than 12 hours, with the main focus on transporting passengers during rush hour.

«We have been working according to this schedule for some time now. We calculated the schedules based on the number of vehicles we have. In the evening, the interval between trips is longer. The drivers' schedules are in accordance with Ukrainian law. They cannot work more than 12 hours. The main focus is on the morning rush hour (when there are the most people) and the evening rush hour. If we have more buses and drivers, we will review the route schedules. We do not have any less busy routes; we only have four in total. We now have a new manager, who has taken time to analyse the situation,» said Kateryna Stokolias.

As of today, buses on routes №1 and 391 are operating according to their usual schedule.

How transport runs in the Korabelnyi district

This is not the first time that problems with evening public transport in the Korabelnyi district have arisen. After the publication of NikVesti at the end of January 2025, residents of the Korabelnyi district and other microdistricts of the city began to leave comments on social networks complaining about the work of transport after 7 p.m.

People wrote that in the evening, buses and trolleybuses run at long intervals, and on weekends, it is sometimes impossible to get home for several hours.

«After 7 p.m., it is virtually impossible to get from the station to Aivazovskyi. Especially for those who work until 8 or 9 p.m.,» noted UA Citizen user.

Residents of Balabanivka report that route №91 is virtually unavailable in the evening.

«After 7 p.m., the only way to get to Balabanivka on route 91 is on foot, because the next bus is in 1.5 hours. And it's dark, because they're cutting back on street lighting,» wrote Yuliia.

Other residents point out the uneven operation of transport throughout the day.

«During the day, two buses and two trolleybuses run one after the other along Bohoiavlenskyi Avenue, and in the evening, working people freeze for an hour at bus stops,» wrote Oleksandr Rovna.

Mykolaiv residents also complain about the unstable operation of private carriers.

«In the evening, minibuses №53 run when they want to and don't run when they don't want to. The real problem with transport in the Korabelnyi district is in the evening,» Yuliia notes.

Complaints from Mykolaiv residents under a previous publication by NikVesti about the problem with transport in the Korabelnyi district, screenshot of the discussion on the NikVesti Telegram channel

Currently, the following routes serve the Korabelnyi district:

• Communal buses: No. 1 (PJSC Transammiak — Okean factory) and №91 (Central Stadium — Balabanivka).

• Private route: №53 (Ocean Plant — Central Avenue).

• Trolleybuses: №11 (circular route within the district) and №12 (Aivazovskyi — Kulbakyne), where a limited number of vehicles are currently operating.

In addition, private route №53 (Ocean Plant — Central Avenue) runs to the district. At the same time, back in 2023, the municipal enterprise Mykolaivpastrans reported that after 6 p.m., the transport situation in the Korabelnyi district becomes more complicated because private carriers remove their vehicles from the routes. As a result, remote neighbourhoods are effectively left to be served only by the municipal enterprise.