Federal Law № 220-FZ of July 13, 2015 “On the Organization of Regular Transportation of Passengers and Luggage by Road and Urban Surface Transport in the Russian Federation and on the Amendments Registration to Certain Legislative Acts of the Russian Federation” expected to have had the transportation transformation by 2020 (hereinafter referred to as the Federal Law “On Transportation”).
From now on, local self-government bodies have to conclude so-called gross contracts, involving a private company to organize passenger bus transportation (the development of surface public transport lies on the authorities’ “conscience”, while it can be organized through public-private partnerships). In other words, the authorities must make the purchase at a fixed price of carriage of passengers. According to the idea of the legislation, this should provide the safety of transportation – drivers will stop arranging races for passengers. This is especially important for share taxi (cf. dolmuş), which stops at the lawns or side of a road by any demand, changing at once several driving lanes. In addition, the Federal Law "On Transportation" proposes to give an ability to form the requirements for transportation by the territorial entity of the Russian Federation independently. Among those are a use of low-floor buses of various capacity, equipped with air conditioning and modern payment systems (fare), as well as to have the environmental safe transportation (primarily due to use of gas).
Several regions of Russia switched to a new system offered by the Federal Law "On Transportation", and faced mainly with the organizational problems: the carriers did not have time to supply the required number of buses, the routing was not discussed with the public.
At the same time, the Federal Law “On Transportation” allows the individuals to apply for changing the routing - the authorities must consider applications within 2 months (in Saint Petersburg). This is especially relevant for new residential complexes.
Thus, the topic of the study is the implementation of a new model of public transportation, and the purpose of the study is to analyze and review the transportation reform in Russia from the point of view of the authorities tasks and responsibilities, as well as the individuals rights and opportunities.