City Hall has calculated that introducing an electronic ticketing system in Mykolaiv will cost ₴2 billion

The introduction of an electronic ticketing system on Mykolaiv’s public transport will cost 2.23 billion hryvnias. In 2020, the cost of launching the system was estimated at over 166 million hryvnias. At the same time, the city will also have to cover the ongoing maintenance costs of the system.

The issue was discussed during a meeting of the Mykolaiv City Council’s Committee on Housing and Communal Services on 27 October, according to NikVesti.

Oleg Kuksa, Deputy Head of the City Council’s Department of Transport, Communications and Telecommunications, explained that the first attempts to introduce an electronic ticketing system in Mykolaiv began back in 2019. According to him, on 18 March 2019, the Executive Committee announced a tender for the implementation of the system, but there were no applicants. On 25 April of the same year, the tender was re-announced, but the Executive Committee did not approve the results.

In 2020, the tender was announced once more. However, the participants who applied did not have the necessary funding and did not meet the requirements.

«At that time, in 2020, the implementation of the e-ticket system cost 166,584,304 hryvnias. This figure related to 111 public transport vehicles, excluding private ones,» said Oleh Kuksa.

According to him, as of 2026, the cost of introducing electronic ticketing stands at 2 billion 230 million гривні. This is due, in particular, to the increase in the number of public transport vehicles; there are currently 223 such vehicles in the city. At the same time, private transport was not included in this calculation.

Oleg Kuksa also drew attention to the costs of maintaining the system. He said that in 2020, it was envisaged that a 5 per cent monthly fee would be paid to the operator for transactions. Currently, he estimates that the cost of such services in Ukraine stands at around 8 per cent.

During the discussion, committee member Yevhen Prudnyk questioned the wisdom of such expenditure.

«This is too expensive a service. It’s a costly service. It can’t be done with a single click on a phone. It’s very expensive,» emphasised Yevhen Prudnyk.

In response, Oleh Kuksa explained that if a private operator were brought in, the city would be at the mercy of its pricing policy. In particular, the operator could subsequently increase the percentage charged for maintaining the system.

«We’ve spoken to other cities, but that doesn’t change the situation. The problem is this: if there’s a private operator, they might increase the service fee in a year or two, and the city will have to make concessions. If we do not increase the service fee, the e-ticket system could end up not working at all. And if we set it up within a municipal enterprise, we will need qualified staff who can manage and maintain the equipment,» replied Oleh Kuksa.

Yevhen Prudnyk asked where the city would find the funds to implement the system.

«Well, that’s just to implement it; after that, we’ll need to spend money on maintenance every month. That’s the cost as things stand today, but no one can say how much it will cost tomorrow or the day after. Prices are rising every day,» noted Oleh Kuksa.

Following the discussion, the committee members took note of the information provided by the Transport Department regarding the work carried out to introduce electronic ticketing on the city’s public transport network.

It should be recalled that back in September in Mykolaiv, the City Council’s Committee on Housing and Communal Services decided to revisit the issue of introducing electronic ticketing on public transport. The Transport Department is required to provide documents and cost estimates for the project, as well as information on previous attempts to attract an investor.

E-tickets in Mykolaiv

The issue of introducing e-tickets on Mykolaiv’s public transport has been under discussion for many years. Plans to introduce such a system were first mooted back in 2016. In February 2017, the President signed a law providing for the introduction of e-tickets. This allows local authorities to set up automated payment systems and completely phase out traditional tickets and cash payments.

In June of that year, the then Deputy Mayor for Infrastructure stated that he did not know when he would be able to implement this project, but added that he had been working on the issue since the day he took office.

In May 2018, Mayor Oleksandr Sienkevych instructed city council officials to introduce e-tickets as soon as possible. By that time, in accordance with Ukrainian law, this project should already have been operational for a year.

A month later, on 1 June 2018, Mayor Oleksandr Sienkevych and the director of «Mykolaivelektrotrans», Volodymyr Yevtushenko, signed a memorandum with Visa to launch a pilot project for the introduction of e-tickets.

Oleh Manushevich, then head of the City Council’s Transport Department, promised to introduce the e-ticket system by the end of 2018, not only on municipal electric transport but also on private minibuses. However, this did not happen by the end of the year.

In November 2020, proposals for the introduction of electronic ticketing on public transport were presented in Mykolaiv.