Free Public Transport Żory: a few words about location - a city in the South of Poland - Silesia Region - 60 thousand residents - 65 km2, square kilometers - Mayor of Żory :Waldemar Socha

Public Transport in Żory before 1st May 2014 From 1993 Żory was a member of an intercommunities

transport

union

–

a group of 10 cities. Together, the group was controlled the public transport over those 10 cities. The members of this Union, are the neighbours of Żory – Jastrzębie Zdrój, Suszec, Pawłowice and others.

Before May 1st there were 6 bus lines within the city which didn't cross the boudaries of city and 6 buslines which did – they went out of the city – they connected Żory with other cities.

When we were in this Union: – on avarege twice a year the prices of tickets were increasing, people didn't have enough money to pay for tickets that's why they discontinued to travel by bus; – buses started to be empty; – lower ticket sales meant more money we had to pay to the Union for public transport; – the prices of public transport were increasing and increasing – we had to pay 72% of the cost of carrier – it was 2,5 mln zł – 625 000 EURO and the tendency was that the prices were still increasing; – the transport costs started to be unjustifiable because we needed more and more money from the city budget and still there were no passengers in the buses – we had start to think what to do next, how to solve this problem?

At the same time in the Transport Union: 1st January 2014 two members decided to resign from the Union: these were Wodzisław Śląski and Świerklany, but we remained. We had an agreement with the Union which was in effect untill 30th of April 2014. After that date we had decided to stay in the Union but the rules had changed, our corporate philosophy had also changed. Waldemar Socha, the Mayor of Żory had found the best solution for our problems – Free Public Transport.

We decided to attempt this but on our own terms. We organized a tender for companies which were intrested in realizing free public transport in Żory. When the tender was over we have choose the best company with the lowest price per 1 km for free public transport. It was a company called „A21”. We signed the agreement. We are still a member of the Union now but even though our transport is mixed in part

we gave got:

and we have:

free public transport – bus lines within

paid public transport, buses which

the city, within the boundary of Żory,

connect the different cities with Żory,

and we pay 3,54 zł per 1km

and we have to pay 4,40 zł /1km

Conclusion: free public transport is cheaper than transport with the Union.

Another reason why we have stayed in the Union is because of grants from European Union for transport. The Union got financial assistance from /subsidy which European Union can give for new technology in busses - cameras, a system which will counts passengers, for the card which will replace tickets, for points where you can fill your card etc. And if we had decided to leave the Union they would have lost this money from European Union – so it was a political issue.

Before we started the project, we had to check a few things: 1. we started to calculate the cost of free public transport; 2. we started to analyse our system of roads, the locations of bus stops, the timetables.

And the conclusion was that we would try to create the perfect system of free public transport

Don't try to figure it out/how – just go for free! Free Public Transport in Żory 1st May 2014 Żory become one of the few cities in Poland which started the free public transport project 1) we are paying 3,54 zl/1km which is less then in Union by almost 1zł per 1km

2) free public transport is for everyone – not only for residents, you don't need any cards, any ID card even if you are not from Żory 3) you can use the 7 buslines – the bus numbers from 01 to 07 go for free 4) free public transport is only in the area of Żory – to the boundary 5) the company which is responsible for free public transport – we chose it in the tender and we signed the agreement for 10 years

6) before we signed the agreement company had to prepare a few things.

There were some conditions: - the company should have new buses – manufactured in 2014, because we wanted, for our citizens, comfortable terms of travel by bus - the buses should have the air conditioning, place for baby carriages - the place adapted for disabled persons with wheelchair and other amenities - the company should have permission to operate public transport - we wanted to have a corporate identity strategy that's why we told to company that they should commission the projects for busses in a PR Company – and they did – in one of the wellknown PR Agencies called FORMIND and every bus features the logo of free public transport and there is a poster of a man, who is sitting in the luggage box, because the man is afraid that he doesn't have a ticket and the controler will come, and he decided to hide – that's why there is a sentence on the bus – don't figure how – just go for free in Polish the sentence is like a joke, with sense of humour.

The pros and cons

PROS: – many more passengers in the busses – less cars in the city – less exhaust fumes, which is better for the envirement – fewer traffic jams in the city – more parking places in the city – revival of the city has begun, residents are eager to enjoy cultural goods, recreation centers – sports, they are also willingly starting using free buses to go to markets , families start to visit each other, friends start to drop in on their friends, mothers with children and with prams start to visit the citycenter more often – one of our residents did the free mobile aplication with the timetables, a lot of people got it from Internet from shop: Google Play , the resident did it because that was how he wanted to say thank you to our Mayor, because four of his children are using free public transport and he is a programmer – our city is wellknown all over the world because of media and journalists from diffrent countries doing the interviews with us- even Reuters came to us – so it was the biggest promotion in history of our city

Cons: none of them

Now. We think that it was the best idea to do for Żory and it's residents to started free public transport. We achieve more passengers in the buses – it was our aim. You may ask why the free public transport is for everyone, not only for residents – that's the way it is Tallinn in Estonia. It's free for everyone because we wanted the cheapest and simpliest system. We didn't want ticket controlers on our buses. Of course from the begining of project we informed our residents that they can express their opinion about free public transport, they can compare the notes on free public transport – we knew that it would help us to improve the system. And the residents did it. They wrote some e-mails , they even started to come to our offices and talk with us, and started to write letters. And after three months of dialog we decided to change the system – we have changed the buseslines roads, locations of bus stops the timetables even – we try to have a perfect system for residents. There is still a lot of work to do but we are not afraid of that. People are helping us so we will do it.