2011 – A year of successful projects and partnerships for RATB

2011 was full of achievements for Regia Autonomă de Transport Bucureşti (RATB), the most important surface public transport operator in Bucharest. During the first half of this year, we concluded two strategic partnerships, followed by several projects, with real benefits both for the public and our company.

RATB’s strategy regarding our manufacture and repair plant was to increase the effectiveness of its activity and modernise the production lines. In accordance with these objectives, we concluded a partnership with Astra Vagoane Arad (a well-known Romanian tram car manufacturer). The main aim of this partnership was the manufacture of a new low-floor tram called Imperio.

RATB brought in the production space, utilities and labour, while Astra Vagoane Arad, which has all the necessary technical papers and is a holder of a Siemens tram car manufacturing license, made investments in rearranging the working spaces and improving the production lines within RATB’s plant. Thus, our plant has become a centre for high performance tram manufacturing and our current activities are being carried out at European standards.

The Imperio tram, which is going to be built in Bucharest, will have a modern and attractive design and will be equipped with 100% lowfloor, video surveillance cameras, an air conditioning system both in the driver’s cabin and passengers’ compartment, dedicated wheelchair spaces and wide double access doors. The purchase price for such a tram will probably reach around €2 million.

At the same time, our experience in tram manufacturing, but also the desire of our specialists to tackle new challenges, has led to a new partnership between RATB and Siemens Austria. The objective of this project is to build full modules for the trams in Vienna, after RATB managed to comply with the quality requirements imposed by Siemens.

‘Bucharest City Tour’ – an attractive way to discover Romania’s capital city

Taking into account the increasing number of tourists, this summer RATB commissioned a special sightseeing bus line – ‘Bucharest City Tour’. This successful project was initiated by RATB in cooperation with the Ministry for Regional Development and Tourism. Tourists can travel on our four open double-deckers (each with a seating capacity for 77 passengers) and can hop-on/hop-off as much as they like within the validity of their tickets (24 hours) at any of our bus stops. Thus, they can enjoy some beautiful sights and major tourist attractions of our capital city.

The double-deckers run every 15 minutes and were rented for a pilot project from the Municipality of Constanta. The Bucharest City Tour buses operate daily between 10:00 -22:00 on a route which is 15.4km-long and has 14 stops. The trip usually takes about 50 minutes. This project has helped us join the big family of European capital cities that have a rich tradition in operating bus sightseeing tours, a flexible approach to city discovery.

From looking at the profit realised from this line from the very first month of operation, we are now considering covering the buses and keeping them operational over the winter season as well. At the same time, next year we are intending to invest in buying our own doubledecker buses that will run on this tourist line.

New trams on track for Bucharest

In 2011, RATB commissioned four new Bucur partly low-floor trams (60% low-floor), which were manufactured in our own plant.

The maximum transport capacity of a Bucur tram car is 238 passengers, with a seating capacity of 43. These modern trams are equipped with a rheostatic braking system which provides an energy recovery of 30%. The prototype of this tram was manufactured in 2007 and started running in 2009 on tram line 21.

Currently, RATB operates five such modern trams which run on tram line 1 and works are ongoing to manufacture another five pieces. Hopefully, they will be operational by next year.

Goodbye paper tickets!

This year brought another important change for our users – we decided to give up the use of paper tickets, and our fare collection system is now based on two modern payment instruments, the Activ and Multiplu cards.

Our regular users can choose the Activ card, which provides access both to RATB’s transport system and the underground network (managed by another operator, Metrorex). In the future, this card will benefit from other applications as well, such as parking payment, ticket purchase for theatre shows and other artistic events, etc.

Our customers can buy this travel card at any RATB ticket centre. It is very easy and convenient for them to reload their cards because this application is not only available at our ticket centres but also at many ATM’s and on-line.

The Multiplu card was created for our occasional users, especially those not residing in Bucharest. This is a contactless card that can be purchased at our ticket centres and can be loaded with between 2 and 10 trips as well as a daily pass. This card can only be used on RATB’s transport network.

The main reason why we stopped issuing paper tickets is that the validation of these electronic cards allows us to get a clear overview regarding our vehicle use and passenger loading per line and city area. Such data are crucial for improving our fleet management. Based on the analysis of this information we can balance the transport supply and demand. At the same time, we can adjust our timetables according to passengers’ needs. This action will be useful both for travellers who will benefit from improved transport services and for our company as we optimise our system and make it more cost-effective.

We know that our customer-oriented strategy is one of our key factors for success. Since our users wanted more options to pay for our services in a quick and convenient way, we had to diversify our ticketing offer. Therefore, we concluded partnerships with two Romanian commercial banks (BCR-Romanian Commercial Bank and BRD-Romanian Bank for Development) and we launched two co-branded cards, which also include a transport application.

In May 2011, BCR, RATB and VISA launched ‘Zambet BCR’ (BCR Smile), a contactless check card provided with a transport application.

The auto top-up option helps customers ensure they never run out of credit by automatically topping up their cards with funds from their bank accounts. Moreover, our customers get a 5% bonus of the amount loaded in their transport application.

A month later, in June 2011, RATB signed a partnership agreement with BRD and Mastercard, putting several cards on the market that feature MasterCard Pay Pass (a new contactless way to pay). These cards are credit cards endowed with a transport e-purse. When issued, the bank gives 5 lei as a bonus to each card holder and this amount is loaded in the e-purse application.

We have ambitious goals and wish to improve our fare collection system in the near future. Hopefully, the next step will allow travellers to pay their transport fare using their mobile phones.

Night bus services for Bucharest

At the request of our customers, in July we commissioned 23 night bus lines. The main terminal of these bus lines is located downtown, at Unirii Square, and the vehicles run every 30 minutes between 11:00 p.m. – 01:00 a.m., and every 60 minutes from 01:00 a.m. to 05:00 a.m. Nightly public transport services have brought benefits to the locals who work night shifts and who can now travel from the city centre to the outskirts. At the same time, tourists that visit the old city centre in the evening can now linger in restaurants and cafes and then use these night lines to go back to their hotels.

Implementing a new vehicle monitoring and control system

RATB aims to improve its services as well as adjusting timetables, and a vehicle monitoring and control system is very useful in this respect. This system will be installed in 1,000 buses and 100 trolleybuses and include vehicle dispatching and monitoring equipment, as well as mobile devices to support the communication between drivers and dispatchers. We are confident that it will contribute to the improvement of our headways and increase travelers’ satisfaction as waiting times at stops are reduced and they can plan their trips better.

A dream came true – Bucharest finally has a Metropolitan Transport Authority!

The current tendency regarding public transport organisation focuses on integrated transport systems for cities and regions. Such integration will optimise the transport operators’ services, which in turn will bring many advantages to travelers. Usually, in large urban agglomerations there is only one major public transport operator in charge of all transport modes, which is subordinated to the local authorities. The services of such an operator are complemented by those provided by the national railways and sometimes by private operators. In such a context, a special authority is needed in order to carry out the integration policy.

As you might know, the Bucharest Metropolitan Transport Authority was set up in August 2011 and this is an important step forward for a more efficient management of the public transport market in the capital city and surrounding areas.

By implementing a modern ticketing system, RATB has already taken an important step towards fare integration with Metrorex, the underground transport operator. We hope that the system will be extended in the future and the fare integration will include private minibus operators as well.

In this respect, the Bucharest Metropolitan Transport Authority will create the premises for full integration-combined tickets, integrated fares, mechanisms for revenue distribution, as well as an integration of sales networks.

Following the set-up of the Metropolitan Transport Authority, RATB initiated the procedure to establish the Bucharest Public Transport Police which will aim at preventing anti-social deeds in overground and under – ground public transport vehicles.

Such an initiative is crucial because we focus on providing a safe environment both for travellers and our staff, and we are trying to tackle and reduce anti-social behaviour, fraud and the number of peddlers that ride in our vehicles and bother our users.

As a conclusion, I would say that integration is necessary in order to increase the effectiveness and attractiveness of public transport. Thus, we create a unique operational environment managed by a single body, even if when are talking about several operators sometimes under the subordination of different local authorities. This body will supervise the coordination of timetables, as well as the arrangement of multimodal terminals and implementation of a single fare collection system.

We are confident that these measures will turn public transport into a real alternative to private cars. In an integrated system, travellers are able to plan their trips better and the increased ridership will be beneficial for the city because traffic congestion and pollution will decrease, and RATB will feel the benefits because our revenues will improve.

About the Author

In 1998, Mr. Adrian Criţ graduated from the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering within the Polytechnic University of Bucharest, and then he obtained a postgraduate degree in ‘Internal Combustion Engine Thermodynamics’ within the same faculty. Between the years of 2005 and 2010, Mr. Criţ took a selection of various Postgraduate courses, but from 1999-2000 he held the position of engineer within RAR (Romanian Vehicle Registration Authority), then, in 2000 he was promoted as Head of Pollution Control Department. From February 2003 until June 2010 he held the position of Head of Technical Coordination, Pollution Control and Consultancy Department. Since June 2010, Mr. Adrian Criţ has been the General Manager of RATB.

Note to readers

At the time of writing this article, Mr. Adrian Criţ was General Manager of RATB and this article describes specific projects achieved by him. However, on 10 November 2011, Mr. Viorel Popescu was appointed the new General Manager of RATB.