Author: Dallandyshe Xhaferri
One of the daily problems of the capital is heavy traffic, almost every hour. If public transport would work according to what is stated in the contract with the urban service companies or the public statements of the leaders of the Municipality of Tirana, perhaps more people would prefer not to move with vehicles.
But moving with public transport is a challenge in itself, especially in the summer and winter season. Summer was left behind, with its problems in the use of public transport by the citizens of Tirana, but with the arrival of winter, they remain the same. An observation on some urban lines during three days of August this year, highlights the problems faced by the citizens, problems which would not exist if the ordinance of the Municipality of Tirana was respected for the conditions of service provision, and 6 years ago.
The date is August 5, 2022, and in the city of the Ring line the temperature reaches 34.5 degrees Celsius, while the air humidity reaches 43%. Among a large number of people, you can easily distinguish the boredom of the passengers, who, after paying for the ticket, push each other to make room for the cashier.
"It's 13:45 p.m., 15 minutes have passed and I still haven't arrived at my destination ," says Anila, a Natural Sciences student, who admits that she doesn't use public transportation often.
"During school time, I don't use the bus often, because it's always late and I don't arrive on time when I have lessons during the first few hours," she says, adding that the lack of signs with departure and arrival times for urban buses at their destinations still remains an unmet need for travelers within the capital.
"The air conditioning is only used in cases of extreme weather conditions, but it is not powerful enough to benefit all passengers ," she says, emphasizing that the service received by customers does not justify the price of the ticket.
"We pay 40 or 80 lek when we need to take two lines and, in addition to arriving late at our destination, we find ourselves in an environment overcrowded with passengers, where the air does not circulate and we cannot breathe," she says.
After a request for information sent to the Consumer Protection Agency, the latter states that only during the January-September period of last year, 68 complaints were registered for this line.
"Specifically, the majority of complaints have come due to significant delays, slow running of vehicles, malfunctioning air conditioning, and the behavior of internal staff ," the response reads.
The high temperatures of summer, the ordinance of the Tirana Municipality is not respected in public transport
In the ordinance issued by the Municipality of Tirana in 2016, it is determined that all the vehicles that are part of the public urban transport fleet must be equipped with air conditioning in conditions where the temperatures exceed the minimum value of 15 degrees and the maximum value of 22 degrees Celsius .
According to the observations carried out by ACQJ on August 5 and 8, 2022, it turns out that the ordinance of the Municipality is not respected in any of 8 of the 16 urban lines operating in Tirana.
Specifically, on the Sauk-Center line, the measured temperatures reached 31.2 degrees Celsius and the air humidity was 51.1%. On the line of New Tirana, the temperatures reached 33.7 degrees Celsius, while the air humidity was 49%, although the city was equipped with air conditioning.
"It's not normal to travel in such conditions, but we have nothing to do ," says an elderly man as he gets off the overcrowded urban area of New Tirana.
"Now I have to walk another 10 minutes, but I don't want to take another bus because my pension is 20 thousand lek and I can't spend 80 lek a day just to take the bus and see my niece ," he says.
In the city of Kamza at 14:05 p.m. on August 8, the air humidity reached 41%, while the temperature reached 33.3 degrees Celsius, in the city of the Kombinat-Centre line, the temperature was 33 degrees Celsius, while the humidity was 44%. in the city of the Allias line, the temperature reached 34.1 degrees Celsius.
The situation was no different in the Kinostudjo and Porcelan lines, where temperatures reached 33.8 degrees Celsius and air humidity was 41%.
The Consumer Protection Agency admits to ACQJ that inspectors carry out continuous checks every day.
"Mainly during peak hours of the flow of citizens traveling by urban transport ," the response states, while claiming that the lack of air conditioning in public transport vehicles is a recurring problem.
Lack of subsidies, due to poor quality service
The representative of the Urban Transport Association, Dashnor Memaj, tells ACQJ that since 2013, transport within the capital has been carried out by 11 private operators, who provide transport Services on 16 different lines.
"Urban operators have the capacity to provide the service, but only a few lines manage to provide this service in a qualitative manner ," says Memaj, who adds that since the start of the pandemic, operators have not had the economic and human power to put their fleet of vehicles into operation at full capacity.
"The increase in oil prices has an immediate impact on the economic performance of public transport entities, increasing the cost of our economic activity and making the ticket price no longer justify the smooth running of the service ," he says, emphasizing that urban transport is at a critical point of economic survival due to the lack of infrastructure.
"If we did not have the continuous support that countries in the region and beyond have, there will be no improvement in service. It's not that we don't want to offer it to passengers, but we can't," he concludes, adding that "if there is no continuous subsidy, there will have to be an increase in ticket prices, given that the income of private operators depends on tickets."
Meanwhile, the Municipality of Tirana said through a written answer that in the budget of 2022 the subsidy of city lines in the value of 136 000 000 ALL has been approved, but to the questions of ACQJ regarding the quality of service in the means of urban transport, and whether they are penal measures were taken against the operators who violate the ordinances of the Municipality, the latter did not give an answer, delegating the fault of the malfunction of this service, and the monitoring of the operators, to the Consumer Protection Agency and the Directorate of Public Transport.
Until the moment of publication of this article, these two questions have not received an answer.
1 urban for 2 932 inhabitants, Memaj: Licenses are not revoked for malfunctioning air conditioners
According to official data from INSTAT, 32,9% of the population of the Republic of Albania is concentrated in the region of Tirana. Specifically, approximately 912 inhabitants live in Tirana, while the urban transport fleet consists of only 311 urban buses, not all of them in operation, which means that in the best case, 1 urban bus enables transportation within the capital for 2 inhabitants .
According to Memaj, the overcrowding of urban trains is also a result of the same schedules that citizens have to start their activities. "The peak is during the 07:00-08:00 time slot, as well as during the afternoons when citizens return from work ," he says, adding that urban trains should have a special lane to enable the timely arrival of passengers.
"It is necessary to use air conditioners on Tirana's urban lines, but so far no line's license has been revoked for this reason," he says, emphasizing that only last year the licenses of the companies managing the Tufina and Unaza lines were revoked, with Mayor Veliaj himself stating that the main reason for this decision was abuse during the exercise of the activity during the lockdown (isolation) in the country due to the pandemic.
Winter is approaching, and just like during the summer when citizens suffered in scorching temperatures in urban buses without air conditioning, they are also expected to suffer the harsh days of December and January. The lack of conditions in urban areas has made citizens who do not have the opportunity to use their vehicles or taxis, they are always in the middle of the dilemma: by urban or on foot?
