Prague has turned the project into turnstiles, only 1.5 billion will come
The Prague Transport Company has redesigned the project to introduce turnstiles in the metro. According to a study that the company wants to submit to the Prague City Council’s transport committee on Thursday, the project will cost 1.49 billion crowns. At the same time, the costs were estimated at 3.5 billion crowns. However, even with lower investments, the company would have to take out a loan to build the system. The economic return on investment is expected to be in the range of four to seven years from the full launch of the turnstiles.
The annual costs for the operation of turnstiles should exceed 100 million crowns after their launch. According to the study, annual fare revenues should increase by at least 335 million crowns after launch. Last year, the company collected 4.46 billion crowns in fare fines, received 11,426 billion crowns from the capital, and received another hundreds of millions of crowns from European funds for some investments. If the city agrees with the turnstile project, preparations have begun next year. Its construction began in 2013, the launch is expected in 2015.
The difference between the originally expected costs of the project and the current calculation of the company’s spokeswoman Ilona Vysoudilová is the fall in the prices of construction work technologies. But the company will have to borrow and hopes that the city will guarantee the loan.
The Transport Company of the Capital City of Prague (DPP) promises to increase safety and driving revenues from turnstiles. Homeless people and “problematic people” would not get into the metro, and the number of black passengers in the metro would drop to zero. According to Vysoudilová, the auditors could move to buses and trams.
The subsidy that the city allocates to a transport company annually could also be reduced. According to a study carried out by Deloitte, as in the original project, the number of black passengers in the metro is between eight and 11 percent. 11 to 13 percent of people use surface transport illegally.
Turnstiles should be built in two variants – 60 cm wide for ordinary passengers and 100 cm for wheelchairs and parents with prams. It should check in 40 people per minute. In the event of overcrowding or power failure, they would open automatically.
Opencard and SMS tickets should normally work in turnstiles. In addition, so-called contactless chip tickets would be sold instead of current paper tickets. The Prague metro was originally built with turnstiles, but these were removed in 1985 and replaced by ticket markers.
In October 2009, DPP announced a tender for turnstile contractors. However, the tender was suspended last year due to lack of money. The plan also became the subject of a pre-election campaign before last year’s municipal elections, and a petition was organized against turnstiles, which was organized by the Pražané a Pražanky association for public transport. The five-year return was originally expected, but some opposition councilors questioned the calculations.