SCR provides suburban rail services to 293,300 passengers in eleven months
23.12.2014,
12:58
The South Caucasus Railway (SCR) company provided suburban rail services to a total of 293,000 passengers in eleven months of this year, general director of the company Victor Rebets told reporters on Monday.
YEREVAN, December 23. /ARKA/. The South Caucasus Railway (SCR) company provided suburban rail services to a total of 293,000 passengers in eleven months of this year, general director of the company Victor Rebets told reporters on Monday.
The current commuter travels offered by the company are Yerevan-Giumry-Yerevan, Yerevan-Ararat-Yerevan, Yerevan-Armavir (Araks)-Yerevan, Hrazdan-Almast-Hrazdan and Yerevan-Yeraskh-Yerevan.
Apart from this, the SCR operates two international routes – Yerevan-Tbilisi-Yerevan (from October to June) and Yerevan-Batumi-Yerevan (from June to October).
These routes had their passenger traffic increased by 210% from 27,500 people in 2008 to 55,500 in January-November 2014, Rebets said.
One of the achievements is the introduction of Orion automated ticketing system that reduced the ticketing time from 10 to 2 minutes, the general director said.
Online ticketing grows popular from one year to another, and online ticket sales have tripled in 2014 compared to the year before, Rebets said.
Yet, the company failed to maintain the 2013 sales level for suburban services and hence started seeking options to optimize routes, according to the general director.
Rebets said that, according to the concession agreement, the government is obliged to make up for a part of the company’s losses from suburban services as the routes are defined by the ministry of transport. The government debt has totaled to 818 million since 2008, of it 495 million was transferred to the company in December. According to the budget, another 620 million drams will be paid off in 2015. The government debt will be paid in full in two years, according to Rebets.
The general director also said the debt is paid not from tax receipts, but from the 2% concession fee the company transfers to the budget every year.
Since the beginning of the concession, the SCR has paid a total of 1.7 billion drams in concession fees.
South Caucasus Railway, a subsidiary of Russian Railways, runs Armenian Railway, which was handed over to the South Caucasus Railway on February 13, 2008 for 30-year concession management with a right to prolong the management term for other 10 years. ($1 – 456.17 drams). –0--
