Ministry of Transport of Azerbaijan has failed to cope with the introduction of a single payment card for public transport in the city of Baku. The system will be applied in stages and will be completed by summer 2015.
According to the project organization of the intellectual transport management in the city of Baku, fare card system on buses, and in parallel and in the metro, it was planned to introduce in February 2011. For a variety of objective and subjective reasons, the process was delayed until May of this year. Last Saturday, Transport Minister Ziya Mammadov told journalists said the card system will be introduced from the end of May 2013 for the first 100 buses. From the words of the minister is clear that the system card fares will be implemented in phases by the end of this year, it will include 1000 buses. The whole process will be completed by the beginning of the first European sports in Baku in 2015.
Most recently, at a press conference of the Center for Intelligent Transport Management (CITM) in Baku emphasized that the single card system will be applied in a single step, and other forms are incompatible. Testing of the system has been successfully conducted in May 2012.
Bus drivers say that rationing is not profitable to transport companies, "Card system involves the rejection of a planned relationship between the driver and the employer. Today the driver by any means every company pays a daily plan and practically depends on the amount of passenger traffic. The company also receives a steady income and profits. When a card payment system the driver will receive a guaranteed salary and revenues may decline, "said the driver of one of the shuttle buses in Baku named Ali."
Director of the Multimedia Center Osman Gunduz said that perhaps the Ministry of Transport uses the card system in a pilot order. On the technical side of the issue should be no problem, he said.
In CITM and Transport Ministry press services they did not comment on the statement of Ziya Mammadov. According to CITM, in Baku on 115 routes there are 2000 buses. -08B-
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