„Today's meeting of the Metropolitan Municipal Council was a success for the transport of Sofia!“ – this is how Spasi Sofia commented on the vote in support of the new tram line 15 and the thwarting of the attempts of some of the municipal councilors to abolish night city transport.
From May 7, tram 15 will connect railway station “Buxton“ and "Vitosha" metro station. The line was proposed by the deputy mayor for transport Iliyan Pavlov, together with the municipal councilors Boris Bonev, Andrey Zografski and Gergin Borisov. It will complement the routes of 2 of the busiest lines - trams 5 and 10, and will provide Sofia residents with the long-awaited connection between Tsar Boris III Blvd. and “Graf Ignatiev“ street.
In addition to the new line, again at the suggestion of the deputy mayor for transport and municipal councilors from Spasi Sofia, improvements to several other lines were also adopted in connection with the upcoming major repair of the Sofia railway junction. Trams 27 and 3, as well as bus 413 are extended to Sofia-sever station, and tram 1 – to Nadezhda overpass.
“This is another measure to improve the transport connectivity of Sofia. We are working to make travel in the city as fast and comfortable as possible for citizens and to make public transport more and more attractive.“ - commented on the newly adopted changes, Boris Bonev, leader of the Save Sofia party. - “We are glad that colleagues recognized good solutions for citizens in our proposals and supported them with a large majority.“
During the meeting, a debate broke out on the topic of night city transport. Some of the councilors spoke for its removal, but in the end Carlos Contrera's proposal to stop the night lines did not receive support.
“Night transport provides a cheap and non-alternative option for night travel, while improving road safety. Every big European city has night transport and it would be a huge mistake to deprive the people of Sofia of this convenience.“ – Andrey Zografski commented.
Spasi Sofia specified that at this moment night transport is served by only 9 buses, compared to 488 buses during rush hour during the day. What's more, statistics show that passenger growth between January and February is 33%.
„Lobbying – this is the only explanation why for years there has been a fight against 4 lines of urban transport, which have been proven to serve the interests of the people of Sofia and involve minimal resources of the Municipality. There is no other logical explanation in a report on the realignment of traffic due to railway station repairs that attempts are made to remove an entire system.“ – specified Zografski. “I am glad that today my colleagues were reasonable and did not deprive the citizens of Sofia of night transport. Our task going forward will be to improve and optimize the lines. I express my hope that this senseless debate about the need for night transport will be ended once and for all.“ - he finished.