This week started with the traditional so-called “technical meeting” of the Board, at which the Board members discussed the new week’s plans and works to be done. This time they discussed the activities that will follow the approval of Riga city’s budget, including the lines of updating the budget of the capital company. On April 1, “Rīgas satiksme” Board Chairman Dr .iur. E. Saulītis and Board member J. Švanders met with Deputy Chairman of Riga City Council O. Burovs to discuss issues related to the process of appointing the Council and the Board of the capital company.

On April 2, Board member J. Švanders, who is in charge of finances in RP SIA “Rīgas satiksme”, and Board member  J. Meirāns, who is in charge of transport organization issues, met with representatives of audit company “Pricewaterhaus Coopers” to discuss issues related to the application of taxes to public transportation services and the preparation of the annual report.

Taking into account that on April 9 SIA “Rīgas karte” will held a meeting of its shareholders, on April 3 “Rīgas satiksme” Board Chairman Dr .iur. E. Saulītis and Board member J. Švanders met with “Rīgas karte” Board Member E. Morizur (he represents the investors) to discuss the questions included in the agenda of the shareholders meeting, as well as further cooperation. “Rīgas karte” has already started an audit on the initiative of its cooperation partners from “Conduent”, and the auditors selected by “Rīgas satiksme” will also start the audit shortly with the task of evaluating the efficiency of the company’s operation and expenditures.

There was a rather intensive agenda on April 4, when the Board of “Rīgas satiksme” held a meeting, at  which, having listened to the interim report prepared by the expert commission and the report prepared by “Rīgas satiksme” Technical Support Director I. Šnikvalds, the Board took an important decision to resume the process of accepting the buses delivered by “Solaris”. So far serious defects preventing operation of buses have been discovered in just three buses from the delivered batch (two buses had defects in the IT systems and another had broken glasses). It will be possible to discover further defects only in the process of testing the buses, and these activities have been already started in cooperation with several structural units of the capital company.

Later on, Board member J. Švanders, who is in charge of finances in RP SIA “Rīgas satiksme”, and Board Chairman Dr .iur. E. Saulītis, as well as Administrative Resources Management Director E. Epalte-Drulle, met with representatives of AS “SEB banka”. Although the representatives of AS “SEB banka” reaffirmed that the negative decision which had been taken before would not be changed, although actually it cannot have a significant impact on the operations of “Rīgas satiksme”, overall, the meeting was held in an atmosphere of mutual understanding. During the information exchange, “Rīgas satiksme” received several valuable recommendations on how to improve cooperation with creditors. It was emphasised that a transparent process of selecting members of the capital company’s Council and the Board, which are politically impervious, as well as the improvement of the process of managing capital companies owned by Riga municipality will be very significant for taking further decisions.

In the afternoon, the Board of “Rīgas satiksme” met with Riga Mayor N.Ušakovs and his deputies, O. Burovs and V. Baraņņiks. The latter will now fulfil the functions of the “Rīgas satiksme” capital shareholder. They have discussed the most topical issues of the capital company as well as were informed that members of the “Rīgas satiksme” Council will be selected by SIA “Arista executive search Latvia” (https://www.aristaexecutive.com/lv/). The selection process is due to be concluded early in May. The council is due to be appointed as scheduled before – i.e. until the beginning of June.

On April 4, “Rīgas satiksme” Board Chairman Dr .iur. E. Saulītis and Board member J. Švanders met with V. Faļkovs, the chairman of the Riga City Council Committee for Communication and Transport, and discussed planned changes in the organization of the public transport routes network, the two first stages of which are due to be started on May 1 and June 1. The participants of the meeting also discussed the idea of V. Faļkovs about the need of introducing so-called “interval based” public transport schedules in Riga. Such type of public transport schedules are widely used yet shall not be considered as a rational solution from the point of view of modern technologies. “Rīgas satiksme” will evaluate and present its conclusion on the costs of implementing such a solution.

A. Krūze, “Rīgas satiksme” Board member in charge of development, informed about this week consultations with SIA “LMT” about the implementation of 5G technologies in infrastructure. The consultations were concluded on April 5 by A. Krūze’s meeting with I. Pūķis, vice-president of SIA “LMT”, and the management of the Riga City Council City Development Department. “Rīgas satiksme” consumes a large amount of data, which are necessary for information exchange among vehicles and traffic control centres, and for standing and storing video materials. The need for such quick data exchange will be increasing with the implementation of the traffic monitoring system, which will be ensured by SIA “Rīgas acs”, a subsidiary of “Rīgas satiksme”. “Rīgas satiksme” believes that potentially this infrastructure could be used for the installation of additional automatic speed control devices (passing crossings at red traffic lights, abiding by horizontal markings etc.). “Rīgas satiksme” is ready for cooperation in implementing these solutions with relevant state institutions, including the Ministry of Transport.

As the most significant event at “Rīgas satiksme” next week shall be considered the shareholders meeting of SIA “Rīgas karte”. On April 9, members of the Board together with V. Faļkovs, the chairman of the Riga City Council Committee for Communication and Transport, fulfilling the task of the capital shareholders, will participate in the meeting of the Public Expenditure and Audit Committee of the Saeima, which plans to discuss the conclusions of the audit performed by SIA “Ernst&Young Baltic”. The meeting of the committee will be held behind closed doors.

You can find more information on „Rīgas satiksme” services, route schedules, types of tickets and other news www.rigassatiksme.lv and also in social networks, such as Twitter and Facebook.