European Society for Quality Research awards Almaty Subway again

    Almaty city Akim Akhmetzhan Yessimov has congratulated the staff of the Almaty Subway for winning the Platinum ESQR European Award for Best Practice, Tengrinews reports.
    The prize was handed to subway representatives on December 8, 2013 in Vienna, Austria.
    Almaty Subway received the Gold ESQR's Quality Achievement Award 2013 on July 7, 2013 in London.
    The European Society for Quality Research (ESQR) awards the world leading companies. A total of 126 candidates are represented in relevant caetegories.
    The European Society for Quality Research (ESQR) promotes quality awareness, recognizes good business practices, technological innovation, quality achievements in organizations worldwide, and publicizes these organizations’ successful performance strategies.
    The Almaty Akim called on the subway staff to increase the number of passengers and income from advertising.
    "Traffic per day has reached 24 thousand people. The goal for the next year is to launch two more stations, to access the residential areas and increase the traffic. The subway earned more than $6.5 million this year. But it still doesn’t cover all its expenditures," Yessimov said.
    He added the construction of light rail transit lines, supported by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, will start in 2014. The system will be built in combination with the subway. "The light rail transit system will be developed in combination with the subway: the two-part system will complement each other, not duplicate," he said.
    Yessimov pointed out that the passengers in the Almaty subway should be those to evaluate its quality, rather than some international organization.
    Kuat Musabekov, director of Metropolitan JSC - which runs the subway, said ESQR would dedicate the December edition of its magazine to Almaty Subway because of its awards.
    Speaking on the development plan for the Almaty Subway, Deputy Akim of Almaty Yuriy Ilyin said maintenance expenditures would be $32.5 million in 2014, which twice more than in 2013.
    He pointed out that this amount covers all expenses, including salaries and taxes. The subway will be funded from the local budget, rather than the national.
    The government spent almost $35 million to maintain the subway in 2012 and 2013: $16.5 million in 2012 and $18.3 million in 2013.
    Ilyin said there were no plans to make mobile communication and internet access available on the subway, to reduce a terrorist threat.
    He added street musicians would not be allowed to earn a living in the Metro, as is the case in most other subways across the world, because, ‘they violate the public order,’ www.tengrinews.kz wrote.