“Not for Profit, but for People: How Trostyanets Found a Solution for Free Transit and Pushed for Cabinet Reform”

For over a year and a half, transit in the city was completely free for everyone — a necessary measure during the large-scale reconstruction of roads and sidewalks destroyed by enemy shelling, when walking on foot was simply dangerous or impossible.

Today, concession beneficiaries — who account for nearly 80% of the passenger traffic in the city and across 12 rural routes — ride for free using personalized cards. Compensation to the municipal carrier costs the community around 8 million UAH per year out of an overall budget of 350 million UAH.

Community Head Yuriy Bova publicly supported the position of Kharkiv Mayor Ihor Terekhov: in frontline zones, public transport cannot serve as a source of profit.

"Municipal enterprises today work for the people, not for profit. That is precisely why local budgets deliberately incur expenses that in peacetime would be considered economically impractical," — Yuriy Bova emphasized on air during the "Voice of the Community" project by the Kharkiv Press Club.

This position directly aligns with the analytical investigation conducted by the "Gromada" editorial team.

Read more in the Ukrainian edition....