Public Transportation in Saratov
|Saratov is a large city (393 km2 or 151.7 sq mi, Wikipedia says |) and a well populated one (873,055 according to the 2002 Census), which means public transportation is important here. The majority of people don’t have their own cars. Those who have are already causing significant traffic jams now and then, so, I think, it’s a good thing that the number of those cars doesn’t grow too quickly. We use public transportation: buses, small passenger vans, trolleybuses and trams. Saratov has no underground.
Trolleybuses are usually those produced in the neighbouring town of Engels (across the Volga), and for many years they were all the same: an old model that existed before I was born and still dominates. Only in the last few years a couple of new models appeared on our roads, and they are also produced in Engels. The vans are, obviously, Gazels from GAZ, Nizhny Novgorod, just like in Moscow and many other cities. Trams are mostly old ones from Ust-Katavsk, but, just like with trolleybuses, a few new ones have appeared here over the last couple of years. But if we speak about buses, that’s where real diversity begins.
They range from old Soviet ones (from different Soviet republics) and Hungarian Ikaruses to old German Mans and Mercedes and many other foreign models that first appeared in Saratov with the start of “perestroyka”, when people were first allowed to run their own businesses. They were bought abroad relatively cheap, repaired and brought to Saratov. It was their second chance to serve people — their second life.
Obviously, they seldom last long — and so, while it started with ancient buses from 1950s, now you can mainly see models that come from 1980s or about. As I travel by bus around my own city, I often get puzzled by signs printed in languages I don’t speak: nobody has bothered to remove them when the vehicles were delivered to Saratov. Sometimes I manage to decipher a simple sign in German or French (languages I’m not supposed to know) or Italian (which I learned for a short period of time 13 years ago and still remember a few words).
This penetration of different western cultures into our everyday life is very welcome: they are comfortable, those old buses, despite their often worn-out upholstery, and it’s much easier to breathe inside them than inside, say, an old Ikarus. If I’m given a choice whether to take a trolleybus, a tram, a van or a bus, I’ll always choose a bus.
Last modified: 04.11.2009