Warsaw searches for private bus companies
Warsaw's City Transportation Board (ZTM) is planning to release a tender for the privatization of several Warsaw bus lines in November as part of a pilot project put together to look at taking the city's overall bus network private.
The tender, which calls for investment of about zl. 20 million ($5 million) and calls for a private operator to take over several lines, will be completed by year's end, said ZTM Director Kazimierz Kulig. The basic conditions of the tender are that the winner provide 50 of its own low-floor busses and also guarantee a certain level of service on the line.
"Until this time there have been few firms expressing interest," Kulig said.
A decision on the tender is expected to be reached by the end of the year, with service expected to start approximately six months after an agreement is signed, Kulig said. The agreement will be for a period of eight years, at the end of which the company could have the option to renew the contract.
While Kulig could not say exactly how many lines would go to a private operator, he said that the number could be anywhere from two and five. Warsaw has about 180 different bus lines.
This is not the first time ZTM has used the concept of leasing or franchising its bus routes. The public transport operator has used the approach since the early 1990s, and currently four Polish, private companies operate various lines with their own equipment. The difference this time will be in the size of the firm, Kulig said. The company that wins the tender will oversee all operations, including servicing vehicles and hiring drivers. ZTM will pay the firm on the basis of the distance its buses travel.
Trams, busses and a metro, which runs from the center of town to the southern district of Kabaty, are the main forms of public transportation in Warsaw. Approximately 900,000 people use city busses every day.
Much of the city's bus fleet needs to be replaced, and that is why ZTM is asking the tender winner to provide its own equipment. Buses running in the city vary in age from relatively new ones made by Polish company Jelcz to 15-year-old carriers manufactured by Hungary's Ikarus.
"They still work," Kulig said about the latter's condition.
Kulig also did not rule out the possibility of privatizing Warsaw's tram network at some point in the near future.
