How can urban public transport get rid of the dilemma of "suspension of operation"?

Serious diversion of passengers, a sharp decline in income, difficulty in covering operating costs with fares, increased operating pressure and even facing suspension and waiting for relief, this is the dilemma faced by many urban public transport companies.

"Especially in cities and regions with local financial difficulties, the life of bus companies is very difficult, and the payment of employee wages is a problem. Recently, when the first financial reporter interviewed in many places, a person in charge of a bus company said.

At the bus lecture hall (Linfen Station) of the Ministry of Transport's 2023 "My Bus My City" major theme publicity event held today (9th), some experts said that the development of the public transport industry is facing severe challenges, and it is urgent to implement the priority development strategy of urban public transport and promote the healthy and sustainable development of urban public transport from many aspects, such as policy support, tightening and compacting local main responsibilities, and encouraging innovative operation of public transport enterprises.

The "breakthrough" of Linfen bus

Linfen, Shanxi, a fourth-tier city, has attracted the attention of the industry in recent years because of its unique urban public transport has become a "national public transport city construction demonstration city".

On the evening of the 8th, as soon as the first financial reporter got off the plane, he saw small buses with beautiful shapes, different colors and a length of about 6.5 meters on the streets of Linfen. These vehicles are all pure electric vehicles, with a very low chassis, and when the doors are opened, you can get into the car as soon as you lift your feet. There are coin boxes in the car, there are also QR code payment, and you can even pay with your face.

The reporter saw that there were only two rows of 10 seats against the window. The car is equipped with an intelligent safety monitoring system, a real-time upload system for road capture, a driving specification monitoring system, a USB charging port next to the seat, and a seat belt for the higher seats in the rear.

"These are colorful buses that show the cultural taste of Linfen public transport city. An Guoquan, chairman of Linfen Public Transport Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Linfen Bus"), told the first financial reporter that in recent years, people's travel methods, consumption patterns, and life concepts have undergone great changes, and convenient transportation tools have been emerging.

An Guoquan introduced that the development idea of Linfen convenient transportation is "vehicle miniaturization, route diversification, one brand, one theme, one characteristic", determine the model by passenger flow, and determine the theme culture by line. He said that from 2021, Linfen Bus will gradually update small and medium-sized buses below 9 meters, and 214 buses have been updated, accounting for 40.3% of the company's total number of buses, and 4 micro-circulation bus lines have been opened.

An Guoquan told the first financial reporter that after the colorful bus was put into use, the operation efficiency was improved. The bus is small, wide and narrow, and can be passed, driving into the community, serving the community, and solving the problem of "the last 500 meters" of the public.

"The density of departures has also increased. The vehicle configuration of the bus line is no longer the implementation of a model service a line, but according to the passenger flow situation, to the 'volume' shunting, the peak of passenger flow to use large buses, the use of medium-sized buses in flat peaks, and the use of small buses in low peaks, which not only reduces waste, but also balances the unreasonable operation of vehicles. Anguo said that after the small bus was put into use, the passenger flow rebounded, and the quality of the city was also improved, and more importantly, the investment in the small bus, from the purchase to maintenance, from power consumption to labor, the comprehensive cost of operation was significantly reduced.

On the evening of November 8, Shanxi Linfen minibus was in operation. Photography / Zhang Ke

The Ministry of Transport and other 9 departments and units jointly issued the "Several Opinions on Promoting the Healthy and Sustainable Development of Urban Public Transport" (hereinafter referred to as the "Several Opinions") proposed to encourage the development of micro-circulation bus services and the application of miniaturized public transport vehicles according to the demand for passenger flow.

The first financial reporter also learned in an interview with Linfen public transport that the investment in theme buses has also added highlights to the city. Up to now, Linfen Bus has a total of 11 types and 160 theme buses, covering 11 routes, including flight attendant service theme buses, respect for the elderly and love the old theme buses, 520 love theme buses, double-decker leisure sightseeing buses, etc.

At present, Linfen public transport has taken the lead in Shanxi Province to achieve the "three 100%", that is, 100% full coverage of pure electric buses, 100% of the vehicles can be parked after receiving, and 100% can be charged at the station after returning.

According to estimates, the 531 pure electric buses of Linfen Bus can reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 25,000 tons per year based on the overall cumulative operation of 30 million kilometers, which is equivalent to planting 1.38 million trees. At the same time, for every 100 kilometers of operation of 531 pure electric buses, the comprehensive cost of each 100 kilometers of operation will be reduced by 50% compared with the fuel and gas buses previously put into use.

"As an important part of urban transportation, urban public transport has an important impact on urban development and people's lives. Hu Xiaogang, deputy mayor of Linfen City, said when participating in the "Public Transport Lecture Hall" that Linfen will further implement the strategy of giving priority to the development of public transportation, consolidate the achievements of "public transport city" and "green travel", improve the level of urban green travel, and make every effort to build a "green public transport and smart public transport" system.

"Tricks" for multiple cities

"In the past few years, Panjin passenger transport and public transport enterprises are facing the severe test of domestic and foreign difficulties, affected by high-speed rail, taxis, private cars and new forms of travel, the efficiency of enterprises has fallen off a cliff, survival is difficult, and development is impossible to talk about. At today's "Bus Lecture Hall", Wang Liping, deputy general manager of Panjin Passenger Transport Group in Liaoning Province, said.

Since 2021, 470 pure electric city buses have been updated, 22 charging stations have been built, and 210 charging piles have been installed, and the sustainable development capacity of public transportation has continued to increase. At the same time, in order to meet the diversified travel needs of the public, Panjin Public Transport has opened more than 50 customized bus lines on campus, opened a morning market, a night market, a customized bus line for Daji and a special line for the theme of "521 double-decker time bus" slow life urban leisure culture.

By the end of 2022, the share rate of motorized urban public transport in Panjin City reached 50.3%, ranking first in the evaluation of priority development of urban public transport in Liaoning Province for three consecutive years. By reducing costs and increasing efficiency, in the first half of 2023, Panjin Bus will achieve a monthly "six consecutive increase" in bus ticket revenue, with a total of 29.19 million yuan, a year-on-year increase of 34%.

"The key to the success of Panjin Bus lies in government support. For example, in 2020, the Panjin Municipal Government invested 70.84 million yuan to support the delisting of Panjin Passenger Transport Group to obtain 58,000 square meters of land, and in 2021, the Panjin Municipal Government issued measures for the cost regulation of urban public transport enterprises to promote the institutionalization of public transport subsidies, and the municipal financial subsidy funds increased from 52.66 million yuan in 2018 to 158 million yuan in 2022, ensuring the improvement of public transportation service levels.

In addition, the Liaoning Provincial Department of Transportation has also given policy and financial support to Panjin City to carry out demonstration and creation of public transport cities, and in 2020, the high-quality development of Panjin urban public transport will be included in the pilot project of the province's transportation power.

As early as 2018, Linfen Public Transport put forward the "flight attendant" service concept to train drivers and passengers on "flight attendant" quality service. Photography / Zhang Ke

The first financial reporter learned from the Beijing Municipal Transportation Commission that Beijing public transport enterprises are constantly expanding the social service function of public transport resources, deeply opening and sharing bus station resources, and exploring feasible paths for the improvement of the operating conditions of public transport enterprises while extending convenient services.

Taking the bus convenience inn as an example, up to now, there are 25 bus convenience inns in operation in Beijing, which have sold more than 450,000 kilograms of fruits, vegetables and meat, and the cumulative number of customer orders is more than 250,000. Before the end of this year, Beijing public transport convenience inns are expected to build 50 places, in addition to fruit and vegetable cars, business formats also include breakfast stalls, convenience stores, convenience service centers, etc., to facilitate the life of surrounding citizens. It is expected that within three years, Beijing will build at least 300 convenient service stacks, covering all urban areas within the Fifth Ring Road.

In addition, there are 7 bus stations in Beijing that provide external charging services, and 10 "supercharging harbors" are under construction. Some bus depot parking lots also have "shared parking spaces", which not only provide staggered parking convenience for surrounding residents, but also increase revenue.

Chengdu City, Sichuan Province, in accordance with the idea of "bus priority, scientific setting, demand matching, and continuous networking", the bus lanes and the new urban trunk roads are designed and planned synchronously, flexibly set according to needs, and dynamically optimized and adjusted. For example, in the bottleneck section of West China Hospital of Sichuan University, bus lanes and one-way roads for medical treatment have been set up, and the travel time for the public to seek medical treatment has been shortened from 30 minutes to 10 minutes.

As of July 2023, Chengdu has built 107 bus lanes, with a length of more than 1,000 kilometers, transporting an average of 2.21 million passengers per day, accounting for about 79% of the total bus passenger flow. Relying on the network of bus lanes, 190 rapid trunk buses are laid out, and the bus running speed of the bus road section reaches 20 km/h during the morning and evening peak hours, which is much higher than the 13 km/h of the non-bus road section in the same period.

In view of the outstanding problems such as the decline in urban bus passenger flow in recent years, Shijiazhuang, Hebei Province, has implemented regular fixed-point operation on 42 lines with low passenger flow this year, and has adopted 12-meter models and 10-meter models interspersed with operation according to the peak and trough periods of passenger flow for 50 lines, so as to promote energy conservation and efficiency.

In the first half of this year, Shijiazhuang's urban bus ticket revenue was 160 million yuan, an increase of 27% compared with the same period in 2022, and the passenger volume was 96.5854 million, a year-on-year increase of 9%. 296 online customized buses were opened, with an income of more than 400 yuan, a year-on-year increase of 84.8%, and 280 offline customized buses were opened, with an income of more than 2,300 yuan, a year-on-year increase of 108%.

Strengthen financial policy support

"At present, urban bus and tram enterprises are generally in difficulty, and the sustainable development of the industry is facing challenges. At today's "Public Transport Lecture Hall", Lu Xi, deputy director of the Policy Standards Office of the Urban Transport and Rail Transit Research Center of the Academy of Science of the Ministry of Transport, said.

Lu Xi participated in the drafting of the "Several Opinions" jointly issued by the above-mentioned nine departments and units. He said that in recent years, the income of urban public transport enterprises has dropped sharply, and it is difficult for fares to cover operating costs. The guarantee of the priority right of way of public transport is not in place, the land guarantee for bus stations is not in place, the local financial subsidies are not in place, and the protection of the rights and interests of public transport employees is not in place. The capacity and attractiveness of bus services need to be improved. It is difficult to effectively meet the diverse travel needs of the public, the change of business concepts is not timely, and the lack of information technology to promote the quality and efficiency of public transport services.

The "Several Opinions" put forward that the implementation of the operating subsidy compensation policy includes requiring all localities to reasonably determine the service standards of urban buses and trolleys, implement the expenditure responsibility of urban public transportation as the financial authority of the city and county, and establish and implement cost accounting and subsidy compensation systems according to local conditions.

In terms of improving the price mechanism, the "Several Opinions" make it clear that all localities should establish a dynamic adjustment mechanism for urban public transport prices, evaluate the existing price level of urban public transport and optimize and adjust it in a timely manner, implement government-guided prices or market-regulated prices for customized bus and other routes, and explore the use of mileage-based pricing for long-distance bus and tram lines.

Lu Xi introduced that some cities have explored public transport reform in many fields and have achieved results. For example, in September this year, Lanzhou City issued the "Notice on Printing and Distributing Lanzhou City Bus Fare Charging Standards", which clarified that the city's urban public transport adopts a combination of single-ticket lines and multi-ticket lines, of which the single-ticket line fare is 2 yuan, and the multi-ticket line starts at 2 yuan, which can take 10 stations, 0.50 yuan to carry and multiply 5 stations, and so on.

On November 9, during the "Bus Lecture Hall", Shanxi Linfen Public Transport displayed its corporate image. Photography / Zhang Ke

With the support and guidance of Guangzhou State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission, Guangzhou Public Transport Group successfully issued the first phase of green ultra-short-term financing bonds in 2022, with a scale of 300 million yuan, a maturity of 270 days, and a coupon rate of 1.93%. Through the innovative financing model of green financial instruments, the financial cost is reduced and the financing difficulty of electric bus procurement is solved.

Nanchang City has explored the comprehensive development of land and issued the "Opinions on Promoting the Priority Development of Urban Public Transport", which clarifies that bus stations can be comprehensively developed and utilized according to local conditions, and the relevant proceeds are used for the development of urban public transport. Combined with the construction of public rental housing and low-rent housing, in accordance with the principle of greening on the ground and parking underground, the bus parking lot is planned and constructed in the underground part. Since 2012, a total of 500 acres of land for bus stations have been planned, and Nanchang public transport enterprises have invested 1.433 billion yuan to build 26 bus stations of various types, with a total construction area of 388,000 square meters, 1,300 buses can be parked, and the entry rate of urban buses and trolleys has reached 100%.

Duan Xinyuan, deputy director of the Shanxi Provincial Department of Transportation, said that by the end of this year, all cities, counties and districts in Shanxi Province will realize the interconnection of transportation cards and enter the first phalanx in the country. At the same time, the "Jin Carbon Travel" carbon inclusive platform based on green travel data has been developed and launched to encourage the public to establish carbon accounts and choose green travel.

路熙对记者表示，针对公交企业普遍遇到的资金困难问题，需Strengthen financial policy support，用好用足中央财政资金，发挥省级层面对城市交通发展奖励资金的统筹作用to support the priority development of public transportation. Make good use of the subsidy fund policy for rural passenger transport. At the same time, we will strengthen investment and financing policy support, use local government special bonds and other tools to support the asset securitization of eligible bus ticket revenue rights, and improve the credit evaluation mechanism in a market-oriented manner.