Marchezan sets deadline for changes to buses.

Luís Eduardo Gomes, On the 21 - Mayor Nelson Marchezan Jr. (PSDB) published decree 19.836 last Friday (22), which aims to define deadlines for the implementation of new technologies – GPS, facial recognition, internal surveillance circuit – and changing rules in the public transport system of Porto Alegre. Carris and the companies will have until December 31, 2018 to implement all the changes foreseen in the decree in the entire fleet of buses in the Capital. The City Hall's objective is to increase the safety and comfort of the system, combat fraud and offer a higher quality service to passengers, aiming to reverse the downward trend in users, which, in 2016, represented a 10% loss in the number of paying passengers.

The bidding process for the Integrated Transportation System (SIT) of the Municipality of Porto Alegre stipulated that, after the new system came into effect last February, operators would have 45 days to submit proposals for technology installation. After project approval, they would have 90 days to present an executive project and another 90 days to begin system implementation, but this has not yet happened.

According to the decree, Carris and private companies must, within 30 days of the decree's publication, begin implementing facial recognition in the Electronic Ticketing System (SBE) and, within 60 days, begin installing security cameras that create a Closed-Circuit Television (CCTV) system and GPS equipment for locating buses. These last two technologies must be installed in at least 40% of the fleet by July 31, 2018. With facial recognition, the City Hall hopes to combat fraud and increase security inside the vehicles, which is also an objective of the surveillance system. With GPS, the City Hall hopes to make it possible for users to know exactly where their bus is and what time it will arrive at the nearest stop.

Furthermore, companies will have 150 days to begin implementing the User Information Service (SIU) and the Operational Supervision and Control System (SSCO), which will monitor the location of buses through GPS and surveillance cameras, respectively.

The decree also changes the rules for the use of air conditioning on buses in the capital. Until now, according to a resolution published in 2011 by the Public Transportation and Circulation Company (EPTC), companies were only required to turn on the air conditioning between November 1st and April 30th. According to this Friday's decree, the criterion is no longer seasonal, and the air conditioning, on buses that have it, must be turned on whenever the internal temperature of the vehicles exceeds 24ºC.

Who will pay the costs?

In a statement, the Porto Alegre Passenger Transport Association (ATP) expressed its support for the implementation of the new technologies and said it would strive to meet the deadlines, but stressed that this will be difficult due to what it considers to be the financial imbalance of the contract. According to the Association's executive director, Gustavo Simionovschi, the accumulated losses for the companies since the beginning of the post-bidding contract in February 2016 exceed R$ 120 million. “It is undeniable that the accumulated deficit interferes with the investment capacity of the concessionaires. The negotiating power for obtaining credit becomes much more restricted due to the situation faced. So, who will finance the purchase of these new technologies?” he asks.

Simionovschi says that installing the technologies could have the opposite effect to what is desired, that is, further increasing the fare and accelerating the decline in paying users. He argues that the costs should be spread over a longer period of time so as not to overburden the fare. “The process of implementing new technologies needs to be conducted prudently since the burden falls on the passenger. Therefore, we advocate that the introduction should be gradual, as was established with air conditioning, which will be in the entire fleet within 10 years,” he says.

palliatives

One of the city councilors most closely linked to the issue of mobility, Marcelo Sgarbossa (PT), believes that the changes proposed in the decree are positive and should have been taken earlier, since they were foreseen in the 2015 bidding process. "The specific measures are correct, but they are nothing new," he says. However, the councilor believes that the measures in this decree and the package of projects submitted by Marchezan to the City Council at the end of July, focusing on reducing exemptions and discounts on fares, are not sufficient to achieve the objectives defined by the government, which are to reverse the downward trend in paying users of public transport in the capital.

Sgarbossa argues that it is necessary to change the concept of public transportation and rethink the city model, moving away from the current one based on prioritizing individual vehicles. According to the councilman, it is necessary to invest in measures such as exclusive bus lanes and synchronized traffic lights with sensors to improve bus traffic, with the goal of making public transport journeys faster than individual transport journeys. He also highlights that unpunctuality and lack of comfort on public transport are crucial factors in the decline in ridership. "In this sense, the issue of air conditioning is positive," he says.