The newly elected mayor of Vilnius, Valdas Benkunskas, the duties of the mayor will officially start on April 26. Until then, a lot of preparatory work and other challenges await the mayor. The portal MadeinVilnius.lt interviewed the future mayor of Vilnius about the future of Vilnius, the program, changes in the administration, priorities and other works.
Big changes in public transport the people of Vilnius will not get it. The mayor promises to review the current routes, maybe the network of stops will be denser, and the route schedule will be more frequent. The mayor does not promise to introduce, design or announce tenders for trams or other new vehicles. Great attention will be paid to asphalting the streets, and a large part of the work needs to be done before NATO of the summit in Vilnius, which will take place in July.
About the streets. Will we already see maintenance (asphalting) of the existing streets this year?
The work that begins every spring when winter ends is about to begin. We are already thinking about where we should really strengthen and how much additional work should be done this summer before the NATO meeting in July, when Vilnius will become the center of world attention. The city must be ready to receive guests. The focus will be on those locations, those streets, where traffic flows will be directed - the connection from the airport to the center and to Litexpo. Undoubtedly, when we start working and have to adjust the city budget, additional funds can be directed to the city's infrastructure management works and this area in general this year.
Will the municipal budget be revised?
There can definitely be corrections. Anyway, the city budget is revised 3-4 times a year after its adoption. This is routine as additional funds become available or funds are simply redistributed. In this place, there will definitely be a redistribution of the budget, which will be arranged according to certain priorities of the new term.
When can we expect real changes in Žalgiris - the Iron Wolf - Ukmergė st. at the intersection?
We have singled out 5 nodes, intersections, which are the cornerstones in the city of Vilnius, and their lack of traffic basically leads to the appearance of large traffic jams. Here is primarily a question for specialists in reviewing the solutions that could arise. Our initial plans are to review and assess whether these intersections would be best regulated by eliminating them, making tunnels or viaducts. Of course, the projects are expensive and last for many years, but from the functional side, we have to make sure that after investing the funds of the city budget, we will achieve the required effect. After carrying out traffic calculations, which must be carried out by specialists, in consultation with transport professionals, engineers will make the most appropriate decisions.
Could it start this year?
There is already too little time for construction work this year, but these goals can certainly be achieved in four years.
As I mentioned, everything depends, first of all, on the political priorities that we will put together in the work program, depends on funding. In consultation with the Directorate of Roads, we will decide what the financial possibilities are, because the value of such projects reaches several tens of millions. If we do not have the financial means to solve this issue at all 5 intersections, then we will have to choose which ones we will give priority to.
About public transport. Do you think it is enough that the old buses will be replaced by new ones?
We calculate efficiency in several aspects: how many residents voluntarily choose public transport as a means of transport instead of their car and whether public transport functions smoothly, whether it arrives at stops on time, whether its density is sufficient, whether there is a sufficiently intensive schedule.
First of all, we need to make transportation convenient. Public transport needs to be updated to make it as attractive as possible for passengers. The trolleybus park needs to be substantially renovated. 159 trolleybuses have already been ordered, now we are just evaluating the financing conditions and probably next year the first trolleybuses will reach Vilnius, and in four years we will have practically a new fleet of trolleybuses.
Now we have a fleet of mostly 7-8 year old diesel powered buses. Looking at the new cycle, all of us public transport measures must be non-polluting or zero-emission, which the city is already committed to achieving by 2030. Again, the next work is to update the entire fleet so that all public transport vehicles are powered by electricity or hydrogen. As for buses, this by itself, of course, does not solve all problems, but it can certainly help to take a big step forward, so that Vilnius residents choose public transport much more intensively and willingly.
Other investments in the field of public transport are in the expansion of the network of stops and in the proper arrangement of routes, so that in fact you don't even have to look at the time during peak hours and you know that it is not an overcrowded bus or trolleybus that is coming and you will definitely find a place there, and you can leave the stop every few minutes leave in the right direction.
How do you promise to increase the density of routes and increase their quantity, if there is already a shortage of public transport drivers in Vilnius?
What happened before the New Year is a good example that investment in improving working conditions in the transport sector is an ongoing process that does not have to lead to disputes with the trade union. You don't even need to negotiate with the trade union to be able to take certain actions. The need to attract highly qualified, experienced drivers is certainly great. Here, too, there will be a big challenge for the company responsible for public transport.Vilnius public transport”, but it is a doable challenge. Experience with private carriers shows that well-arranged processes can help run operations as smoothly as possible.
In order to improve these conditions, I believe that VVT job offers will become more attractive and we will definitely eliminate that vacuum or lack.
Will there be new G routes?
It is estimated that two more buses could be added to these express bus routes. A review of the entire network and current planning is likely to make adjustments, but the goal and principle is very clear: to keep our arterial streets free of congestion. Especially if we want cars to be left in our Park and Ride lots and people who live on the fringes or housing estates not to go downtown if they work there. As a result, we plan to review the entire A lane network and the layout of express buses.
Are you going to introduce zoning in the city?
The Sustainable Mobility Action Plan provides for such a possibility, but so far it exists only on paper. Certainly that plan will be revised, taking into account what we will have in the new agreement after the beginning of the term, what the work program will be. It is clear that these plans, which are in force now, will be revised and many things may change in them.
Will wages rise?
What concerns the provision of services is primarily decided not by politicians, but by the heads of the municipal company, the board, the director and the like. We, as shareholders of the company, have very clear expectations from the city - what we expect from the company. These are managerial requirements and all performance indicators that must be achieved. Improving the working conditions of employees is primarily a matter of responsibility of the company manager, the board or the general management.
First of all, we will help form new company boards, because the schedule coincides so that with the new term of office, company boards also start work. Then we will clarify what expectations we have for them - if we want there to be no shortage of drivers, for them to be qualified, helpful, motivated for their work, then working conditions are one of those essential points.
The mayor certainly does not determine how much a bus or trolley driver should earn, but the conditions must be adequate, competitive and the company must be managed in such a way as to ensure such working conditions.
So maybe you will consider returning night buses at the same time?
When speaking with university representatives, the question was raised whether night buses or public transport in general could return in Vilnius. Yes, there are such considerations and we see a lot of meaning in it.
Will there be a tram in the city? You mentioned that this is a long-term perspective, but maybe you should start thinking about the project now?
No, introducing such a vehicle in four years is unrealistic. First of all, because we live in a really small city of 400 square kilometers and we have less than 600 thousand people. population. It's the arithmetic here that prevents us from having either a tram or a subway as a public transport option today. Our passenger traffic does not allow us to have those vehicles, because the cost of one pass should be covered by the same taxpayers, from the budget money.
The main thing I would pay attention to in the next four years is not the issue of introducing a tram or metro, but the proper formulation of the urban development or urban densification policy so that in the future, when, hopefully, Vilnius will have a million inhabitants or more, everything is done to it would be convenient to start installing the same lines of the new mode of transport. At all times, one should have the idea that we are building a city not only for ourselves today and tomorrow, but for future generations.
During this term, attention will be paid to updating the current public transport system, improving quality and comfort.
But will preliminary projects be created already so that a tram could appear in Vilnius in the future?
In fact, if we plan the street network and issue building permits for new blocks or develop block-by-block urban planning, it is necessary to anticipate that a certain public transport line could potentially one day appear in this place. However, in this term, the city will not start designing or announcing tenders for the installation of the tram line.
Why can't Vilnius have a tram? Olsztyn in Poland, which is smaller than Klaipėda, has a tram, but we don't.
Historically, it could have happened this way, but the terrain of Vilnius is exceptional: we have an old town in a ravine, so installing new engineering infrastructure objects, lines in this case would cost a lot of money. From a financial point of view, it would be an unbearable burden for the city alone, because our budget has exceeded 1,2 billion. euros, but basically the city does not have such money on hand and would not be able to invest on its own. This would require the obvious contribution of the Government.
There are probably various examples, but in this case the reality is that Vilnius residents want convenient public transport not in 10 or 15 years, but now. Therefore, we will invest in what we have today.
