Moscow abolishes the position of a trolley driver

Trolleybus drivers in the capital began to receive notifications about the reduction of their positions from October 1, 2020. Earlier, the Moscow authorities denied plans to eliminate trolleybus traffic in the city, despite the publication in the media of the schedule for the closure of the trolleybus “until September 2020”.

Sergey Mizerkin

On the official website of the community "Muscovites for a trolleybus" (MZT) posted a scan of the notice of the reduction of the position "driver of a trolleybus of regular city passenger routes" of the Vostochny branch of the State Unitary Enterprise "Mosgortrans" in accordance with order No. 230 of 30.06. 2020 "On the optimization of the organizational structure of the branch". As it was explained to NI in MZT, the branch Vostochny includes a trolleybus fleet in Novokosino. This is the newest trolleybus company in the capital. How a full-fledged trolleybus fleet started operating in 2014. Now the trolleybus depot has been transformed into the Novokosinsky bus and trolleybus depot. The community noted that at the end of December 2017, "Mosgortrans" denied media reports about the planned reduction of 2,000 "driver's personnel".

After the “final plan” for the liquidation of the trolleybus service in Moscow was published in the press, the head of the Moscow Transport Department Maxim Liksutov said that “there is a specific date when we will be charged the last trolleybus has not been assigned", Vechernyaya Moskva newspaper reassured Muscovites.

Officially, the Moscow City Hall, including in written replies to Muscovites, she did not name a specific date for the closure of the Moscow trolleybus, despite the publication of the Minutes of the meeting of the Moscow Department of Transport dated September 16, 2019 No. 61-07-759 / 9 on the elimination of trolleybus traffic in Moscow with the dismantling of the contact network by September 2020 (which in fact has already begun), rightly fearing public outcry.

However, the MZT website posted a copy of the response of the Passenger Services Service of the Moscow Metro UD-26-3538 / 20 dated 06/22/2020, which directly states that "by September 2020, it is planned to withdraw all trolleybuses from the Moscow transport system".

Meanwhile, the turnover of the anti-trolleybus campaign in Moscow is not declining. Since July 20, another trolleybus route has become smaller in Moscow - trolleybus No. 85 has been transferred to diesel buses. Now in the once “trolleybus capital of the world” only 9 trolleybus routes operate: m4, 20, 22, 28, 59, 60, 64, 70, 72. For example, in 2015, 88 trolleybus routes worked in the city (taking into account the “short” routes - 103 trolleybus routes).

The press service of the Department of Transport and Mosgortrans refused to promptly comment to NI on the situation with the reduction of the position of a trolleybus driver.

PS

A terrible accident that happened this Monday involving a passenger bus of the State Unitary Enterprise Mosgortrans in Lublino, in which a woman died and two more people were injured, is quite possible, according to an eyewitness to the accident, is indirectly associated with the elimination of trolleybus traffic. The fact is, writes Komsomolskaya Pravda newspaper that a woman controlled the 228 bus and, according to the witness of the accident, supposedly mixed up the gas and brake pedals. It seems that this could be a former trolley bus driver: the “tread” and “brake” pedals are differently located on the bus and trolley bus. It is possible that the driver instinctively pressed the wrong pedal, so to say, according to an "old memory". The transport complex of the capital refused to comment to NI on this version of the accident. Trolleybus advocates argue that such cases are not uncommon with ex-trolleybus drivers. By the way, on the electric bus, despite the proximity to the trolleybus in terms of control, the brake pedal is located as on the bus, under the right foot (on the trolleybus - on the left side of the steering column).