Dynamics of Urban Electric Transport Development in Million Cities in Russia

This article analyzes the dynamics of state policy development in the field of urban electric transport development in the Russian Federation on the example of cities with millions of inhabitants. The paper addresses the issue of decision-making by executive authorities at the state and regional levels on the development of all types of urban passenger electric transport that have developed on the territory of the Russian Federation in the period from the appearance of the first such city — St. Petersburg — in 1897 to the present. The approach to the analysis of state policy in the field of urban electric transport development is systematized: the diversification of types of electric transport into main and auxiliary ones is carried out; the periods of assigning the status of million-city to cities are determined; the key evaluation parameters are indicated — the length of the network, the number of rolling stock and the number of routes (lines). As a result of the conducted diachronic analysis, the high role of electric transport in the life of cities with millions of inhabitants has been revealed, while in most such cities there is a stagnation of urban electric transport systems. Metro systems are characterized by gradual development with different dynamics, tram systems are mainly characterized by stagnation with local development, and trolleybus systems are equally characterized by stagnation and degradation, with individual cases of development. The dynamics shows that preferences are given mainly to such types of transport as tram and subway. Despite the decline of electric transport systems in a number of million cities, at the moment there is a gradual growth of existing systems. It is determined that from the point of view of electric transport, as well as mass transport in general, the most negative situation is in Voronezh, where the tram network has been eliminated, the metro system is missing, and the trolleybus system has significantly degraded.