New bus fleet in Suceava
Suceava faces problems of over-populated areas, a continual increase in the number of privately owned cars and economic growth that imposes more frequent and intense need for citizens to travel. This is currently being met by private mini-buses and the local Public Transport Company.
Suceava City has made some significant progress within the first year of CIVITAS SMILE Complementary to some soft measures implemented to influence the behavioral patterns and transport demand, Suceava set off to develop a set of interrelated strategies that will bring about an intelligent, sustainable and inter-modal city transport system that will make it possible to live an active life, independently of private car use and ownership. Suceava city promotes the partnership and transfer of knowledge among cities involved in this project and is willing to share its experiences with others, who have successfully implemented different and complementary measures that have produced successful results. The demand for transport is an increasing phenomenon in a society that speeds up economic and social changes, in order to become an integrated European city. As a response to this demand, the Municipality of Suceava has taken important steps to improve public transport and to maximize its usage. In this respect, in 2005 Suceava Local City Council took over the administration of the former State Public Transport Company (SPTC), which became known afterwards as the Local Public Transport Company (LPTC). They are undertaking the initiative of modernizing and making it profitable in order to better serve the needs of the passengers.The former SPTC was extremely inefficient, providing a poor service improperly equipped which was also poorly administered. At the same time, many private mini-buses began to run and were much more profitable.. In competition with these private entrepreneurs the SPTC became totally disorganised and ineffective.Since the City Hall of Suceava joined the partnership of this project, assuming responsibility to make Suceava a better place to live, many actions have been undertaken to efficiently change the face of public transport. This has been done by reducing the number of vehicles that run in the city, establishing main routes that are operated by the new LPTC and secondary routes that are operated by a limited number of private mini-buses. These are now also compatible with the new safety regulations. Starting in July 2006, four out of the eight routes are to become eco-routes. .The first set of 15 buses was produced by IRISBUS-IVECO in France and they are equipped with Euro3 engines and have a capacity of 107 people. They have modern passengers’ security systems and electronic panels for providing variable message information and are more comfortable and attractive for passengers. In May 2006 a new bidding process was organized for purchasing a further 15 buses of the same quality. The acquisition process will be much shorter and they will be in service much quicker than the buses provided in the first contract due to the experience gained from the first contract.The first leaflet promoting the new buses and the impact of the SMILE project on their acquisition is designed and will be printed shortly. It is important for citizens to be made aware of and for them to understand the major changes that such a project can bring about in their daily lives and to fully support it.As part of the evaluation process we will be monitoring the patronage of the new bus services and customer satisfaction.
