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Vladivostok Mayor Victor Cherepkov recently announced he will remove the city’s central tram line, the first step in a five-year plan to rid the city of trams entirely.

Cherepkov said that a stretch on Svetlanskaya Street and a segment running from Lugovaya to Balyaeva will stop running by March 1.

Commercial buses will replace trams on the two routes, and all passengers will pay a 2,000 ruble fare.

The move has drawn criticism from some city residents. “A loaf of bread is 3,000 rubles, so to pay 2,000 for a bus ride is a lot of money,” said one man, who asked to remain anonymous. “People just don’t have the money to pay for transportation.”

According to city leaders, there is no other choice. Car ownership in Vladivostok has tripled to 150,000 in the last five years, an increase that regional planners did not predict when tram use was reassessed in 1983. Accidents on Svetlanskaya now occur three or four times a day, usually blocking trams and forcing riders to walk, said Alexander Moroz, head of the City Committee for Transportation, Construction and Development.

The combination of tram delays and increased traffic makes car travel along the street painfully slow, Moroz said. “Without traffic, a car can travel the six kilometers on Svetlanskaya in a few minutes. But if a car goes behind a tram, it can take 30 minutes.”

Moroz said the city will build bus bays off Svetlanskaya so that buses do not block traffic as they stop along their routes.

Many drivers agreed that the mayor’s decision would make driving easier. “I drive on Svetlanskaya every day and I constantly have to stop,” said driver Vasily Sinenko. “And every year they bring more and more used cars, and that creates huge traffic problems.”

The move also would save Cherepkov’s office from a major financial burden. Because an estimated 90 percent of tram riders can claim exemption privileges on the trams, the mayor decided to make the service free for all riders last October. As a result, city coffers have been getting no money from tram and trolleybus services.

But according to the 1997 city budget, the city must pay $15 million annually to the Tram and Trolleybus Agency for electricity, vehicle maintenance and salaries.

The krai administration has also consistently pressured the mayor to switch to commercial lines and charge for transportation. In a document obtained by the Vladivostok News, krai Vice Gov. Igor Belchuk wrote that federal subsidies earmarked for public transportation would be late, and the city would be unable to pay its debts to the Tram and Trolleybus Agency.

The krai also agrees with Cherepkov’s assessment. In a press release, officials said residents had gotten used to buses, which are “small, mobile, can quickly maneuver around traffic during rush hour, and stop on passenger demand.”

Belchuk suggested that the city use commercial bus companies instead, which would charge riders a set fare for transportation. Federal privileges do not apply to private companies, and the city would also charge drivers for licensing fees.

But the rise in bus use, and the shift away from electricity, has led some to call the move an ecological disaster. “ I think that to resolve the problem of conveyance of people on Svetlanskaya with individual buses is impossible,” said Valery Marienko, former head of VPOPAT-1, one of the city’s municipal bus companies. “Who studied the ecological situation?”

Moroz said that the pollution which cars release while stuck in traffic behind the tram outweighs any negative impact caused by gasoline-powered buses. He also accused detractors of masking their real motives.

The Mayor’s Office also asked the Far East’s local Green Cross chapter to research the problem. “If they switch to ecologically clean buses, it will have an enormous effect in lowering electricity use,” said Alexander Malishev, Green Cross’s Regional Coordinator. “The new system will raise safety, and lower the amount of gas burned by automobiles.”

Malishev said that it would cost $12 million to buy 150 more buses for the route.