Operation of public transport during an alarm: what the Kyiv Defense Council decided

The Kyiv Defense Council sent the decision on possible changes in the operation of public transport during an air raid to the next meeting for revision. The draft decision concerned ground public transport. There was no mention of the capital's subway. This was announced by Mykola Povoroznyk, First Deputy Head of the Kyiv City State Administration, in a comment distributed by the Kyiv City State Administration on Wednesday, reports UNN.

Details

Povoroznyk noted that this decision is due to a number of reasons. In particular, the security situation in the capital has not changed since 2022.

"The city has repeatedly appealed to the SES, the military, and the police regarding the possibility of changing the algorithm of public transport during air raids. In particular, in December last year. And the answer was the same: the security situation is such that we cannot allow it," Povoroznyk noted.

He added that the draft document submitted to today's meeting of the Kyiv Defense Council stipulated that "the decision to stop or continue the movement of ground public transport will be made directly by the driver".

"That is, the driver, based on his emotional state, mental stability or, simply put, courage, must decide whether to go or not: to endanger passengers or not. However, I would like to remind you that not only public transport drivers are responsible for the safety of people. But also those who make such a decision, including the Kyiv Defense Council. I am not even talking about the number of conflicts with passengers that such a decision could provoke," Povoroznyk emphasized.

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According to him, the draft decision presented today concerned ground public transport. And not a word about the operation of the capital's subway.

"The draft decision proposed today implies that the security situation in the subway has not changed. And ground transport can be released at the discretion of the driver. And the situation with electric transport remains unclear, when one tram or trolleybus driver stopped because he made such a decision. What to do for those who stopped behind, but want to go. Stopping one tram is stopping traffic on the entire line. What is the algorithm of actions here?" Povoroznyk said.

He stressed that the decision on changes in the operation of public transport needs to be worked out more carefully with members of the Kyiv Defense Council.

"All questions must have clear answers and written algorithms for all cases. We have no right to shift responsibility to one driver. Everyone must understand their responsibility - both for the safety of people and for the functioning of the city under martial law," Povoroznyk summarized.

Addition

On March 8, the head of the Kyiv City Military Administration, Timur Tkachenko, reported that two key issues would be adopted in Kyiv this week at the Defense Council: the movement of public transport and the procedure for the operation of bridges.

Timur Tkachenko stated that stopping public transport during an air raid leads to a traffic collapse in Kyiv, especially on bridges across the Dnipro, creating crowds of people and increasing the risk of being hit.