Ismaili Bridge: Free public transportation for all of Pristina, here's how we do it

Pristina Mayor Wan Ismaili has vowed today that during his mandate he will make public transportation free for all citizens of Pristina.

To come to the realization of this project, Ismaili has mentioned a number of tasks that need to be done in advance, but all are feasible.

Ismaili has indicated that the cost of free public transportation to Pristina will cost around 15m euros annually. According to him, revenues that will be generated by parking management will be around 12m euros, which will nearly cover free transportation expenses.

This is our daily nightmare, which has been following us for years. This problem requires immediate response, and well thought-out solutions. In my program, we have a solution. With me as mayor, Pristina will have public transportation FALAS.”, Ismaili said.

There are nearly 90,000 cars of Pristina resident citizens in the city today. This number is added to 130 thousand cars entering Pristina daily in different directions. All these cars are looking for parking space, looking for new driving lanes, and in the process they choke traffic and pollute air. This huge flow of cars, besides, is an increase in traffic safety risk.”, he added.

According to Ismaili, this shipment in traffic has also caused the city's thinking and planning.

He has said Pristina is a city where the planning is done with a focus on car needs, not on the needs of the citizen living in Pristina. “Just look at the entrances to Pristina! They're all six lanes. This is an invitation to the car. So the solution is free public transportation!”, Ismaili added.

Ismaili has said that to provide free public transportation we need to understand some basic elements:

“1. Close to eight million miles [8 million km] of driving a year are necessary to offer public transportation on which you can rely, as in time accomplished, as in precise times!

2 To offer this service requires 160 buses at a minimum! Urban traffic today has 51 Ssh. The private sector also has a considerable number of buses, but are in poor condition because there is no contract with the Community for offering public transportation service.

3 To reach 160 buses, Urban traffic has to buy 30 buses, a process that, according to Shpend Ahmeti's words, has already begun. While the private sector should offer contracts for public transport service. This contract should be minimally 5 years old, while for those who make serious investments in the new fleet and “eco-friendly”, the contract will be 10 years old. This contract will be similar to the current urban traffic that has the Pristina municipality, where the operator is paid for Kilometers driving.

The 4KR public transport operators (privates or public) will be introduced into integrated and digital ticket systems, with all revenues in the transitional period collected from the Pristina Community.

5. In a two-year period after full functioning of “Pristina Parking”, and the integrated system of public transport and parking ticketing digital in public spaces, Pristina Community through incomes generated by: Pristina Parking, commercial space in hosting buses, in busses inside/out and other interconnected revenues will cover the cost of providing free public transportation services to all!”, it is complete.