Veliaj's lies about urban transport in Tirana

2024-10-20 16:08:00, Politikë CNA

Veliaj's lies about urban transport in Tirana

Erion Veliaj

Public transport continues to remain problematic in the capital, despite many promises made to improve its quality. Mayor Erion Veliaj has repeatedly pledged, over the past 8 years, for various interventions that would transform the service, but citizens and experts say that urban transport in the capital is in a "coma state".

One of the promises of the mayor of Tirana, Erion Veliaj in 2015, was the transformation of urban transport in the capital.

"Urban transport will be of the same quality in both Laprakë and Vaqar", said Veliaj in July 2015.

This was repeated by the mayor in December of the same year, where the transport companies demanded an increase in the ticket price.

"We must first hear if they agree on electronic tickets, if they agree on the new bus lines that also affect the village, and if they agree to improve and increase the quality of their service and vehicles. Some buses are average, acceptable, while some others are like the ZISs", emphasized Veliaj at the time.

Erion Veliaj

The improvement of urban transport has always been the focus of his promises, as one of the services that directly affects citizens, who have expressed dissatisfaction with the service provided.

"Within this year we will introduce the electronic ticket, which will finally solve some small problems we have", promised the mayor of Tirana, Erion Veliaj in 2016.

A year later, in 2017, he declared that an obstacle had been overcome and reiterated that the use of electronic tickets for urban transport lines in the capital would begin.

"The decision of the Council of Ministers passes, which gives the opportunity to the Municipality of Tirana to issue the electronic ticket. It has been a very long process, for 25 years it has been a monopoly of the central government", he announced.

However, the electronic ticket has not yet been included in urban transport in the capital even after so many years.

In 2017, Veliaj announced that the day would not be far off when Tirana would have public transport even at night. "The day will not be far when we offer 24-hour service even at night", promised the mayor of Tirana. However, 7 years after this promise, Tirana still has such a service during the night hours. Urban transport offers service from 5 am to 10 or 11 pm.

Veliaj's lies about urban transport in Tirana

In May 2019, the mayor of Tirana also spoke about electric transport in the capital.

"Our ambition is that in this second mandate, we focus most of the EBRD's funding on what is called the green cities program, where we want a very large focus on electric transport", emphasized Veliaj.

Despite Veliaj's commitment, in Tirana not all lines have electric buses.

Two years later, transport companies halved the fleet in circulation, due to high costs, making this service problematic for citizens. In 2021, Veliaj threatened the transport companies to increase the quality, as otherwise, their license would be revoked.

In February 2023, it was the next promise. The mayor of Tirana declared that in the summer of the same year the project for fast urban bus lines would be launched.

"We are ready to launch 'Bus Rapid Transit', super-dedicated non-stop bus rapid transit, this summer. We will cross 3 lines in this system: the Kinostudio-Kombinat Line, we will cross the Ring Road, and we will cross New Tirana. The prediction is that if it took us 54 minutes, let's say the complete journey of the line, we want to take it to 24 minutes" - declared Veliaj.

But the project in question was not launched in the summer, as promised.

Veliaj: We will start work on 3 express bus lines
November 14, 19:51
Veliaj promises: I will introduce the fast bus line
March 29, 15:32

KfW previously told Faktoje that the total cost of the project is 110.37 million euros, of which 50 million euros will be financed by the 'German Financial Cooperation', through KfW. Up to 31.2 million euros are financed by the European Union through ÚBIF, the financial instrument for the Western Balkans, and up to 29.17 million euros are expected to be the contribution of the Municipality of Tirana. The duration of the project is until 2029 and the implementing agency of the project is the Municipality of Tirana.

In April 2023, Veliaj also mentioned electronic bus stations, but so far there is no development on this promise.

"We plan to turn 200 bus stations into electronic stations, where you can make a prediction when you will come to work. We want to start in June, first with the new stations", said Veliaj.

How is the situation with urban transport today?

Despite many promises, the transformation of public transport has almost stalled. Dozens of citizens have expressed their concern for Faktoje regarding the quality of the service, highlighting delays, congestion, lack of ventilation system of the ticket counters, as well as dirt as the main problems.

"Overload is the main problem. Although the line is frequent, it serves a very high density area, like Fresku. Secondly, the traffic, the lack of a dedicated lane for buses and taxis means that the road from the last station to the center takes over 60 minutes, when normally it is somewhere around 25 minutes", Alma, a resident of the "Freshku" area, says worriedly. in Tirana.

Erion Veliaj

Altini uses Tirana's commuters every day to go to work. It takes two lines, that of the Institute and the New Ring.

"There is no air conditioning in the urban areas of Tirana. They are always overloaded, dirty", says the 42-year-old.

Citizens emphasize that dedicated lanes and increasing the number of buses would improve this service somewhat.

Urbanist Gentjan Kaprata sees three main problems in urban transport in the capital.

"The first is the speed at which the buses move. The second is the time in which travelers are delayed at the stations and the third is the quality of the buses, the quality of the vehicles. All three of these leave much to be desired. There is a lot of room for intervention", argues Kaprata.

The head of the Urban Transport Association, Dashnor Memaj, emphasizes that it is necessary to build dedicated lanes. According to him, this would reduce the time and avoid overloading of buses.

"For one destination it will cut up to 20 minutes. When the bus moves faster, the vehicle fleet is 100%, there are fewer people, there is a greater speed, we go to work faster, we save time and avoid bus congestion," he explains.

However, he still sees the electronic ticket as difficult to implement.

"The electronic ticket will not be functional for urban transport, nor for intercity, because the infrastructure is not ready", says Memaj./ Faktoje.al