The emptying of public transport was accentuated during the Covid-19 pandemic, but it is a mistake to attribute the problem exclusively to the health crisis.
According to a survey by the NTU (National Association of Urban Transport Companies), the decline in the volume of bus passengers began in the 1990s. The situation stabilized in the first decade of the 21st century, but the decline returned from 2013. The challenge, therefore, is to win back users.
Francisco Christovam, president of the entity, points out that the health crisis ended up increasing the problem. In total, the sector’s losses in the country in the last two years are estimated at R$ 30 billion by the association.
The reasons for the loss include the option for the car, transport applications and the so-called “opportunistic services”, a niche in which are the vans that circulate with or without authorization throughout Brazil.
The resumption, in Christovam’s opinion, involves improving the service to attract passengers back to public transport modes.
This is the same concern of CPTM (Companhia Paulista de Trens Metropolitanos), which in April this year registered an 11.6% lower movement than in the same month of 2019. The company has carried out studies on customer satisfaction.
In Greater São Paulo, the improvement process will have to go through the rebalancing of the transport supply. According to SPTrans data from 2021, the lines with the strongest recovery of users are those that transport workers from the periphery to the central region.
“The numbers of the fleet are still unbalanced, either because companies are looking to recover supposed losses, or because the demands have changed due to the dynamics of work and consumption”, says Valter Caldana, professor of Architecture and Urbanism at Universidade Presbiteriana Mackenzie.
The professor also criticizes the terminals in the central area, which he considers harmful to the general quality of life in the city, and the way in which the lines are distributed. “Our system is set up in such a way that it becomes segregated and excluding, whether due to the design of the lines, the lack of intermodality, or the value and distribution of tariffs.”
In a statement, SPTrans states that, in São Paulo, it is possible to integrate the modes of public transport using the Single Ticket, which entitles you to four departures on buses in the capital in a period of up to three hours, upon payment of a fee. a fee of BRL 4.40.
One of the points of evolution is the possibility of boarding a bicycle on super-articulated buses during off-peak hours. According to SPTrans, the capital’s fleet has 1,317 vehicles of this type.
In the city of São Paulo, 1 in 5 bikeshare trips start or end at subway stations or bus terminals. The data is from Tembici, which operates in the micromobility sector. A study released by the company in November 2021 showed that 46% of cyclists surveyed started to cycle more with the pandemic and 85% intend to continue to commute by bike.
Those who choose the car spend three times more than public transport, calculates Professor Valter Caldana. “The driver pays the tax, the bus subsidy and the car itself and its costs.”
The subsidy he mentioned has become more common with the pandemic. Christovam, from NTU, says that, before the health crisis, only three cities in Brazil depended on help from city halls to provide their services. Today there are about 250. The reasons for this are those R$ 30 billion in losses and the high costs.
When asked what to do to make the bus service attract the public again, Christovam mentions the need to open exclusive lanes — and cites São Paulo as an example.
“The city has 17,000 km of streets and avenues, buses run for 5,000 km. But there are only 500 km of exclusive lanes and 150 km of corridors”, he says.
In a statement, SPTrans says that the Goals Program 2021/2024 provides for the creation of 40 km of corridors and 50 km of exclusive lanes, in addition to four terminals and the expansion of the delivery of new vehicles to the municipal fleet. The agency also says that, from January 2021 to September 14, 2022, 1,826 new buses were included in the system.
Although São Paulo vehicles are up to date, the average age of the national fleet increases year after year. Christovam attributes the problem to factors such as the lack of components for assembly.
Offering new buses is part of the strategy to win back the public, and many will be powered by electricity. Today, according to the president of NTU, a 100% electric vehicle costs three times as much as a diesel version. Despite this, the additional cost is only 10% higher over its entire lifetime. This is due to the lower price of energy and the low need for maintenance, explains Christovam.
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