Chelyabinsk Texler Dungeon

Honestly, the city’s residents no longer trust that the subway will ever function. However, the authorities stated that by 2025 the first subway line will be put into operation. For this purpose, the Ministry of Construction of the Russian Federation allocated 72.9 billion rubles.

Are the plans for building new and improving existing transportation systems in the city justified, or are they inefficiently spending large amounts of budget funds?

Deep unfinished

It was decided to construct the subway in Chelyabinsk in 1976. The plan for the first line was created in 1991, work started in 1992. They managed to build a platform and one entrance of the Komsomolskaya Ploshchad station, and nearly finished the construction of the platform and one of the two entrances of the Trade Center station, after which everything stopped …

And now the failed project has been decided to restart. Interestingly, in 2018, the City Hall held an auction for the construction of the first section of the first subway line from Traktorozavodskaya station to Prospekt Pobedy station. But, as “74.ru” wrote, the funds were used to maintain the existing subway facilities. This involved an amount of 1.7 billion rubles, and in 2019 it was expected to increase to over a quarter of a billion rubles from the city budget.

So, it turns out that the subway, even in an incomplete state, requires huge costs.

In February 2022, Deputy Prime Minister Marat Khusnullin called the construction of the Chelyabinsk subway economically unreasonable. But he mentioned that in order to avoid a man-made disaster, it is necessary to complete the subway.

It's interesting that Governor Alexei Teksler said the project would be completed in 2024, but it was postponed for another year. If the subway doesn't appear by the promised time, hardly anyone will be surprised.

The Chelyabinsk Citizens Fund asked the President to instruct an assessment of the justification for the modernization projects proposed by the officials. The fund’s managers and experts believe that the underground tram system is a misappropriation of budget funds.

Two in one

The project itself includes completing the construction of the subway with integration into the tram network. Currently, there is an underground tram system only in Volgograd in Russia. Chelyabinsk could become the second city.

The main differences between the underground tram and the traditional subway are the length of the stations, the track and rolling stock requirements. In Chelyabinsk, the carriages will be smaller than those in the subway, but larger than the trams currently used in the city. Because the trains will travel partly underground, the journey along the route will become quicker.

As a result, the Ministry of Construction of the Russian Federation will provide the Chelyabinsk Region with an infrastructure budget loan of 73 billion rubles for the construction of an underground tram system and the restoration of the tram network with replacement of rolling stock. Federal funds will be transferred in 2024-2025.

tram pain

When the metro tram is launched in Chelyabinsk, the plan is to upgrade the existing tram system. The officials want to replace all the tram cars, renovate 65% and separate 95% of the tram tracks, modernize two depots, and 22 power substations.

But there are also some issues with public transport in Chelyabinsk.

Yakov Gurevich from the Citizens Foundation recently mentioned that new trams are being actively bought, but the current infrastructure may not support them without risking tram breakdowns. It's also uncertain if they can be used in the metrotam system. If they are unsuitable, it will cost more money.

In 2021, the Sinara company, owned by the notorious oligarch Dmitry Pumpyansky, won the auction for new trams. There were rumors that his victory was not a coincidence. The businessman has long desired to control the Russian tram market. Additionally, “Sinara GTR” was given a concession of Chelyabinsk trolleybuses. A very strange coincidence indeed…

Texler sees Pumpyansky as a benefit?

Another scandal has emerged concerning trams. The Federal Antimonopoly Service of the Chelyabinsk region discovered collusion in auctions for tram spare parts, as reported by Kommersant.

Nine contracts worth 124 million rubles were signed in 2019-2021, involving 4 companies – Bazis LLC, Trade House Yuzhuralelektrotrans LLC, Yuzhuralelectrotrans LLC, and Electrotransport LLC. Together, the companies created fake competition to favor a specific winner. Honest participants were removed by lowering the initial price according to the “ram” model.

There were problems not only with trams. In 2019, it was found that public transport in Chelyabinsk poses significant financial risks to the budget. Another audit revealed inefficient use of property worth millions of rubles and lost revenues to the budget due to the actions of officials in the MUP “Traffic Organization Service.”

Constructing a metrotram in the current situation, utilizing the existing underground infrastructure, is an opportunity for Chelyabinsk to solve at least some of its transportation problems. But will the city be able to take advantage of this opportunity?

The Chelyabinsk region has not been lucky with its leaders. Because of inefficient budget spending and corruption scandals, two former governors, Mikhail Yurevich and Boris Dubrovsky, fled abroad after stepping down.

Alexei Teksler should remember the unfortunate experiences of his colleagues to avoid ending up as one of the unsuccessful top three governors. We can only wait and see if the metro will actually be built, or if its construction will be delayed once again, resulting in multimillion-dollar costs.