KYRGYZ REPUBLIC: BISHKEK PUBLIC TRANSPORT PROJECT
EXTENSION
PUBLIC TRANSPORT DEVELOPMENT STRATEGY
TERMS OF REFERENCE
1.
BACKGROUND
In November 2011 the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (the
“Bank” or “EBRD”) signed Bishkek Public Transport Project Phase 1, which focused
on priority investments in Bishkek trolleybus infrastructure. At the same time
feasibility study prepared by an independent consultant in 2011 confirmed that
Bishkek (the “City”) needs much bigger investments. Based on the consultant’s
recommendations the City currently plans to expand the trolleybus fleet in order to
introduce additional trolleybus routes (incl. replacing minibuses).
Bishkek with a population of around 1.2 million is the capital and the largest city in
the Kyrgyz Republic. The municipal transport sector in the City consists of a
trolleybus and a bus company. In addition there are private mini bus companies
operating in the City. The Bishkek Trolleybus Company (“BTC” or the “Company”)
and Bishkek Passenger Transport Company (“BPTC”) are independent legal entities
owned by the City with directors appointed by the Mayor of Bishkek.
BTC operates a fleet of approximately 184 trolleybuses and carried 18 million
passengers in 2014. BTC’s operational fleet has been partially renewed during the
first phase of the Bank’s project with new 32 low-floor and 44 high-floor
trolleybuses, but it is still for most parts dated and requires further renewal
investment. The Company services 9 trolleybus lines.
The City has requested the Bank to finance the purchase of 49 trolleybuses.
Given successful cooperation between the Bank and the City on many municipal
infrastructure projects (incl. water, solid waste and transport) it was agreed that the
Bank would step up efforts to arrange a loan n the amount of up to EUR 5 million to
the Kyrgyz Republic, to be on-lent to the City of Bishkek (the “City” or “Bishkek”)
for the benefit of the trolleybus company (the “Project”). A further EUR 2.9 million
grant to co-finance the Project is envisaged from an international donor. Loans and
grants will be provided in two tranches. The Project will finance the acquisition of up
to 49 new trolleybuses in line with conclusions of the feasibility study consultant and
actual City needs. Developing Public Transport Development Strategy (the PTDS)
will be part of the Project. Weak operators, fragmented sector and lack of integration
of the services make the PTDS an important document for the Bishkek public
transport system development.
2.
OBJECTIVES
The objective is to assist the City of Bishkek (the City) in developing and adopting a
comprehensive PTDS to achieve major change in overall quality of mobility in the
City and to support implementation of Bishkek Master Plan and Urban Transport
Master Plan as well as mid-term road network development plans and to create a
regulatory tool for gradual transformation of minibus services into services provided
with larger capacity buses. PTDS will include (i) detailed analysis of current level of
services and compilation of a data base on urban mobility, (ii) definition of the
respective roles for various modes of public transport, (iii) development of the new
route plan based on the updated demand survey, (iv) advice on the institutional and
regulatory framework of Bishkek public transport sector, (iv) development of
principles and strategy for an on-going route-tendering regime for private bus and
minibus operators that ensures gradual integration of ticketing system, encourages
competition for routes, while enabling the City to acquire acceptable safety and
environmental standards, (v) preparation of full route tender document package
including standard Public Service Contract (the PSC) for private operators. In
addition, a parallel objective of this assignment is to assist the City in setting up
robust system for monitoring of services provided under the PSC by trolleybus and
bus operators.
3.
SCOPE OF WORK
3.1
Development of Public Transport Development Strategy
The Consultant will review and analyze all relevant documents related to the
assignment, including Urban Transport Master Plan (UTMP) and Master Plan of the
City, available documents and studies on transport development, legal and
environmental framework. The Consultant will summarize and provide comments on
the existing limitations as well as local particularities related to the scope of work
under these terms of reference.
The Consultant will assess and prepare a ‘problem tree’ to indicate different issues
and their interrelation to properly design and justify strategy, goals and measures in
the action plan.
The Consultant will prepare a comprehensive Public Transport Development Strategy
for Bishkek which, within the prevailing financial constraints, improves the
accessibility to sustainable mobility services for the city's population and businesses,
and is environmentally sound. The Consultant will use as much information and data
as possible collected by previous studies.
PTDS will be based on:
 Information on current travel demands, including the identification of major
bottlenecks;
 Identification of urgent transport infrastructure and operational needs,
assuming that the current traffic development trend will prevail in the near
future;
 Preparation of current accessibility indicators for different population groups
and different areas of Bishkek; and
 At least two urban development scenario for the purpose of forecasting future
travel demands in 5, 10 and 15 years. The scenario(s) will set out assumptions
for the main drivers of development and travel demands, such as: population,
employment, per capita income, urban sprawl, motorization and quality of
public transport service.
In order to ensure that PTDS is realistic, the Consultant will first estimate overall cost
of public transport system in the City and establish Bishkek's annual rate of
investment in transport infrastructure and equipment (both municipal and private)
over the past five years. Taking this as a benchmark and a reference point, the
Consultant will set an indicative annual investment envelope for the forthcoming five
years and ten year periods. PTDS should be developed within that budget constraint
and feasible investment by the private sector.
The Consultant will scope the infrastructure and equipment theoretically required to
meet demand, assess feasibility of specific at a conceptual level, propose an indicative
investment plan, and set out associated policies. In case total demands cannot be met,
the Consultant will assess the level of restraint likely to be required, identify the
policy options available and describe the environmental consequences of the strategy
to satisfy travel demands.
The Consultant should make a serious analytical appraisal of increased investment in
a public-transport infrastructure and services. It should fully develop priorities for
non-motorised travel and public transport, as well as road provision.
The Consultant will evaluate the approved/adopted PTDS in terms of its effect on
mobility, accessibility, economics and environment. This will include a Strategic
Environmental Assessment to be developed in accordance with the Bank’s
Environmental Policy and pertinent European norms. For the chosen strategy, the
Consultants will identify and describe the: i) physical and organisational measures
necessary; ii) investments required; and iii) accessibility indicators. It is required that
PTDS will be discussed by the stakeholders interested in Bishkek’s public transport at
open workshop to be organised by the consultant in close cooperation with the City.
3.2
Institutional Framework Development for the Bishkek public transport
sector
3.2.1 Public Transport Route Network and Operational Plans
Currently, the route system in Bishkek is met by a mixture of public and private
operators, with some major overlap of services. Based on the results of demand
projections by route and street network for public transport, the Consultant should
develop a clearly defined public transport route network that is based on demand, cost
of service of different mode and operational analyses. The aim of this component is to
provide assistance in developing a public transport service concept, from market and
financial perspectives, clearly indicating the optimal route structure for the various
modes of public transport services (whether by trolleybuses, standard and articulated
buses, midi-buses, or minibuses) that would be best offered to the users based on
projected passenger demand levels. Furthermore, the Consultant will need to
determine the optimal distribution of services on the basis of pre-identified criteria, to
be agreed in advance in close consultation with the City (capacity, costs, efficiency,
environment, quality, safety etc.). More specifically, the Consultant shall define a
clear role, with an appropriate justification, for each of the transport modes and for
the public and private sectors, and define service delivery quality standards for each
transport mode and/or service (e.g. walking distance to stops, speed, frequency,
minimum stop distance, capacity, etc.).
Given the necessity to design a more integrated public transport network for Bishkek,
based on the principle of the defined concept, a new network plan with clearly defined
roles of different modes should be established resulting in a match to between
transport supply and demand at lowest possible costs.
In addition based on the forecasted demand and choice of a mode the Consultant will
develop route passports including type and number of vehicles, number of drivers and
shifts, vehicle kilometres, operational hours and plans, forecasted number of
passengers and indicative cost of specified scope of services for each particular route.
The Consultant will also investigate concurrence of inter-city public transport routes
with suburban public transport routes in so far as they duplicate each other in some
areas.
The Consultant will (i) create new or adapt existing software for developing routes
network, which would allow to take account of any changes in demand, operating
expenses, prices, etc. and (i) hold relevant trainings.
3.2.2 New Regulatory Framework
One of the City’s priorities in development of urban transport system is to integrate
operators into single ticketing system. The Consultant, among other activities, will
design an institutional and regulatory framework (taking into account existing
regulatory framework) for the introduction of competitive route tendering for
bus/minibus services. The new framework and tenders will have the following multifaceted objectives: (i) phased replacement of the competition ‘on the routes’ (i.e., in
the market) with competition ‘for the routes’ (i.e., for the market); (ii) a gradual
transformation of the sector toward public transport fleets with an appropriate
passenger capacity linked to passenger demand along specific routes; (iii) improved
emission standards for the new fleet appropriate and realistic for Bishkek; (iv) service
quality as stipulated in the PSC to be signed with the winning bus companies under
tender; (v) elimination of inefficient operational overlap between different operators,
both public and privately owned; (vi) incentive-based integration into City’s single
ticketing system; and (v) introduction of mechanisms aimed to control for public
transport requirements.
Currently, the City grants basic operating contracts to minibus operators, with some
basic operational and fleet requirements attached to these contracts. However, the
City transport department is in need of establishing an on-going route-tendering
regime that will encourage fair and effective competition (i.e., competition “for the
market”) to generate acceptable health, safety and environmental standards, and better
operational efficiency on the part of the private services to be provided in future by
varying vehicle capacities to match demand needs along each route.
In this regard, and based on the results of the route structuring exercise, the
Consultant shall:
 Develop a Consultation Strategy for relevant stakeholders and organise
information sessions to inform the current minibus operators and other
stakeholders of the objectives of the City as Regulator and the rationale for
the regulatory changes. The consultation process should ensure sufficient
transparency and disclosure of the main issues considered by the Regulator,
the feedback of the stakeholders and the responses to this feedback.
Furthermore, the process should be duly publicised on the website of the City
administration and in other relevant local media.
 Develop a framework to operationalise the ‘competition for the market’
concept, through procedures and award criteria that provide for the proper
incentives embedded into the tendering process to create a tender that can
generate effective competition and lead to improvements in the standards of
service and compliance with higher health and safety and environmental
standards. These incentives should manifest themselves in tender selection
criteria, such as:
 legal formation of the bidding company;
 the percentage of owner’s equity;
 the number of units to be brought into operation under the new contract;
 previous operational experience;
 offer of price per km operated and/or subsidy per vehicle kilometer/or
other service unit price;
 share of new bidder company to be held by former small minibus
operators in Bishkek;
 level of air emissions and noise of the new fleet.
 Structure the standard conditions for route tendering. Multi-year PSC
duration, and size of the contract, minimum service standards, safety
requirements, sanctions and penalties to be contained within the new
contracts.
 Ensure that health, safety and environmental standards are met and in
compliance with Kyrgyz Republic and where feasible European legislation.
 Prepare a set of guidelines for the tendering procedure and a full set of tender
documents for competitive route tendering.
 Advise the City on the most efficient timetable for the tendering process, any
phasing of the processes, as well as on the optimal staffing for tender
management and contract/license monitoring.
 Select a number of bus routes for pilot tender and assist the City in running
tendering and awarding the contract to a private operator.
 Prepare regulatory capacity and monitoring training modules for the City
Regulator once the new private bus services are in place.
The Consultant in a Final Report will summarise the entire work programme
described above, including a comprehensive analysis and evaluation of the work
process and the outcome of each stage. The report should include ‘lessons to be
learned’ concerning the full contracting process, and conclusions and
recommendations for contracting out transport services in the future.
3.2.3 New Institutional Set up
Responsibly over transport planning, organisation, supervision and control is
currently distributed between different departments within the municipality of
Bishkek and municipal operators.
In order to assist the City to define the regulatory and organisational role of the
municipality and related tasks, the Consultant shall:
 analyse the current institutional, legal, organisational and contractual relations
between the City and transport operators (public and private) in Bishkek and
present recommendations to improve the organisational and institutional set up
within the applicable regulatory framework as well as day-to-day relationship;
 advise on the need, including advantages and disadvantages, for the
introduction of a transport authority in Bishkek and set out the responsibilities
of such an authority, outline the organisational structure and business
procedures, staffing requirements and budget implications. Special attention
shall be given to organisation of ticket sales, fare revenue collection, ticket
inspection and the monitoring of contracts;
 review an alternative to the transport authority option with a strengthened
transport department within the organisational structure of municipality. This
new department should focus exceptionally on urban transport planning,
organisation, supervision and control, whilst leaving all other activities (such
as tram operations) to be either corporatized or outsourced. Set out the
responsibilities of such an authority, outline the organisational structure,
staffing requirements and budget implications.
 advise on the co-ordination of public transport services in the City of Bishkek;
 prepare any changes that will be needed in municipal legislation for the
restructuring to take place.
3.3
Draft Urban Public Transport Restructuring Policy Paper
Based on the output outlined above, and following comments received from the City,
the Consultant will prepare a summary policy paper, suitable for review and approval
by the City council. This document shall contain the main transport restructuring
policy that sets out, in a concise form, the direction in which the City should proceed
in the future (no more than 10 pages). Consultant will also develop a detailed plan for
implementation of the policy paper as an Annex to the policy paper.
3.4
Regulatory Monitoring under the Public Service Contract regime
Technical Cooperation assistance was provided by the Bank to assess legal feasibility
of introduction of incentive based gross-cost Public Services Contracts. The first PSC
in Bishkek was signed between the City and the municipal trolleybus company. It
may be later adopted and replicated to municipal bus and to the extent to private bus
and minibus operators. The PSCs to be instituted in Bishkek will incorporate the
basic principles that ensure that the City and inhabitant receive an adequate quality,
efficient service provision by operators who have the proper performance-based
incentives and operational controls in place to deliver the public transport services.
Moreover, this technical assistance has to assist the City in incorporation of fare
revenue distribution scheme for implementation of sector-wide automated fare
collection system. This system once it is fully operational will allow gradually
introducing PSCs with private operators and will ensure fair and transparent
redistribution of fare revenue between different service providers.
The Consultant should work with the City to develop the capacity and technical
know-how to be able to monitor effectively the new PSCs to be signed. This
monitoring ability should include, inter alia:
i)
Develop the design of a public transport regulatory unit to specialize in the
monitoring role of the PSCs and the new competitively tendered bus contracts
that will also be based on the PSC approach;
ii) Developing a concrete set of staff assignment, roles, and tasks for each person
assigned to the new unit;
iii) Adherence to the operational coverage requirements of the City’s public
transport operators, and the geographical area concerned;
iv) Quality performance of all operators under the parameters (by formulae) set out
in the PSCs on the basis of which any compensation payments from the City to
its operators is to be calculated in a way that avoids over-compensation for the
municipally–owned companies;
v)
Benchmarking of certain industry costs for the provision of public transport
services;
vi) Correct calculation of any public payments to be made for the provision of
transport along social routes (i.e., low-volume) and transport of any social
categories of persons, under any gross cost contracting based on total cost per
kilometre operated within the PSC;
vii) Arrangements for ticketing and revenue collection, including fare revenue
distribution amongst operators;
viii) Proper records and contracts signed with regard to all PSC awards, describing
the basics of the contract signed (name, ownership, duration, description of
service to be rendered and types of compensation to be paid, and service quality
and quantity targets);
ix) Adherence of the operators to their obligations with regard to: Vehicles type;
Safety goals; Service quality indicators; Tariff plan; Ticket sales, information
and marketing to customers;
x)
Adherence to the obligations of City, with regard to: payments for services
rendered, on a per kilometre basis; oversight and control of legal and
contractual obligations; City provision and maintenance of transport
infrastructure and traffic control measures; passenger complaints through
surveying; and
xi) Compliance with all technical Appendices of the PSCs, including: Service and
operations plan; Vehicle requirements; Quality indicators; Customer
Satisfaction Index, based on surveying; Tariff, as agreed by the City; Method of
applying incentives and penalties; and Price indexation.
4.
IMPLEMENTATION ARRANGEMENTS AND DELIVERABLES
4.1. Facilities for the Consultant and access to information
The City will create a Public Transport Supervisory Committee to review and approve
the assignment’s deliverables. Within the City’s Transport Department, a project
manager for the daily coordination of the activities will be assigned.
The City will make available free of charge suitable office space for the Consultant’s
team and access to meeting rooms.
The Consultant will be responsible for his own transport, accommodation, living
expenses, communications, materials, printing and report preparation etc. The City
will provide access to all relevant information, background studies and data on the
urban transport system, and any legal documents.
The Consultant will submit to the City with copy to the Bank, the following
documents and materials outlining in detail the results of the scope of work defined in
section 3 above (in both English and Russian languages in hard and electronic
format):
4.2 Timetable
It is anticipated that the overall duration of the assignment will be 18 months.
4.3 Deliverable
Deliverables
Initial Report, describing initial findings and
confirming the work plan for the assignment
Demand Survey
Draft Public Transport Development
Strategy
Workshop on PYDS
Developing public transport tariff policy
taking into account discounted tariffs
Draft Public Transport Route Network and
operation Plans
Documentation for Competitive Route
Tendering for Private Bus Services
Final PTDS
Final Public Transport Route Network and
Operational Plans
Pilot tender for package of bus routes to
private operators
PSC
Monitoring
Development
and
Implementation
Final Report with conclusions and
recommendations
M = mobilisation date of the assignment
No. copies No.
Deadline
in Russian copies in
English
4
4
M+1
4
4
M+5
4
4
M+5
4
4
M+10
4
4
M+12
4
4
M+14
8
4
M+22
4.4 Donor Visibility
Given the assignment is funded through the EBRD’s donor funded technical
cooperation programme, the Consultant will be required to support the client to ensure
visibility of these resources. Support on these visibility aspects can be obtained from
the Bank’s Communications Department. Measures could include but not be limited
to:
-
All documents produced by the Consultant should mention donor support and
bear the logo of the donor, when appropriate.
Donor support to the project should be acknowledged in any public
communication (press releases, launch of facilities).
Local representatives of donors should be invited to any public event
organised to promote the project (press conferences, inaugurations, possibly
stakeholder participation programmes).