Why does Moscow need floating buses and where will they take you?
The Moscow City Government plans to buy amphibious tourist buses. The Moscow City Duma published its draft budget for the next year, according to which the Mosgortrans public transit service will receive RUR 350 million ($5.3 mio) in subsidies to purchase amphibious buses. Subsequently, the service will receive RUR 50 million ($764K) annually to cover maintenance costs.
The Moskva River stretches for kilometers and in certain areas there is a serious shortage of pedestrian bridges – for example, in the Southern Administrative Area. Amphibious buses could be useful for delivering passengers from one bank to the other without them having to make a long detour around the city.
A number of popular tourist cities in the world already have a fleet of floating buses, including San Francisco, Hamburg, Amsterdam and Budapest. The upper body of these vehicles looks like an ordinary bus while the inclined bottom resembles motor boats. The vehicles/vessels will have enough capacity for 100 passengers. The new mode of transit will carry up to 1,500 passengers per hour.
The City Government also plans to purchase and maintain ten ferries for a new regular ferry service between the Nizhniye Mnevniki district and Kievsky Railway Station. Deputy Mayor for Transport and Road Infrastructure Maxim Liksutov announced that the scheduled passenger ferry service will be launched in 2020 or 2021. Ice-breaker class vessels will operate all year around departing every four to six minutes.