Residents of five villages (around 100 signatures) in Guryevskiy District of Kemerov Region asked me to help reinstate a public transport link between the town of Guryevsk and the villages of Novopesterevo and Mostovaya. The 111 bus route from Guryevsk to Mostovaya had been cancelled in June 2009 due to the cuts in government subsidies in order to cover local public transport company losses.

Instead of the 111 bus service the villagers were given the alternative and apparently more economical 104 bus service. Admittedly, the new bus only ran in the morning and evening, with no service in the middle of the day as before. As a result if the villagers went to Guryevsk in the morning they had to spend a lot of time at the station waiting for the evening bus, and return home after dark.

Obviously this bus service into the town was very inconvenient for the villagers, especially for the elderly. However, numerous appeals from the residents to the local authorities (including the Kemerovo Region Department of Transport and Communications) had achieved nothing.

After I received the letter and documents from the people of Mostovaya and Novopesterevo in early October, an official deputy’s request was drawn up and sent to the Head of Guryevskiy District of Kemerovo Region, Anatoliy Mironov, asking him to solve the problem. In early November I got an interim reply from the acting head of Guryevskiy District, S.A.Krivonosov, stating that a request had been submitted to the Department of Transport and Communications of Kemerovo Region to consider providing a temporary (10 days) service during the daytime on the Guryevsk – Novopesterevo – Mostovaya route to assess the demand and the need for such a service.

On January 23, 2010 a letter arrived from the head of Guryevskiy District, Anatoliy Mironov, reporting that “in December 2009, taking into account the needs and wishes of the population, one of the morning buses on route 104 had been moved to 14:00 o’clock. This meant that people leaving the villages to go to Guryevsk in the morning could return from town in the middle of the day. The demand study showed that such change to the bus service 104 timetable was in line with public wishes. One cannot but celebrate the fact that despite their funding difficulties the authorities have found a way to meet villagers’ wishes.