The description signed by the Minister of Transport and Communications is the last step in the implementation of the Law on the Principles of the Activities of Transport and the introduction of accessibility requirements for Lithuanian public transport.
One of the requirements is that new public transport vehicles will need to be equipped with safe areas adapted for wheelchair users, while passengers with hearing impairments will be informed about the route and stops by information displays, and people with visual impairments will receive audio messages.
Public transport vehicles registered in Lithuania for the first-time starting 1 November will have to meet all these criteria. The upcoming requirements will apply to urban, suburban, and interurban public transport vehicles and inland waterway transport.
“In Lithuania, only a little more than a third of public transport vehicles are adapted to persons with individual needs, while long-distance transport statistics are even more disappointing. Therefore, this step is simply necessary to reduce the exclusion of different groups of society, creating opportunities for them to fully engage in education, work, and leisure activities. I really find it strange that this has not been done so far. It is not normal that in twenty-first century Lithuania a person must wait not for the right bus, but one which they could physically enter,” says Minister of Transport and Communications M. Skuodis.
The new provisions specify that public transport vehicles carrying passengers on local, i.e., urban or suburban routes, must be low-floor.
According to M. Skuodis, parents travelling with children’s strollers also often remain excluded when it comes to public transport; therefore, low-floor buses and trolleybuses, which will start to increase rapidly on Lithuanian streets, will facilitate travel for both young children and adults accompanying them, as well as elderly people.
The Ministry of Transport and Communications, in cooperation with municipalities, aims to adapt all public transport in Lithuania to persons with individual needs by 2027. The transformation will lead not only to a cardinal change of public transport fleets, but also to an upgrade of the infrastructure of stations, stops, city streets and pavements.
In order to adapt public transport and transport infrastructure to persons with individual needs in the context of the green transport transformation, the Ministry plans to allocate around EUR 0.5 billion of EU investment from the 2021-2027 Investment Programme and the Recovery and Resilience Facility.
Changes in public transport involving the upgrade and development of Lithuanian road, rail, air, inland waterway and maritime transport infrastructure and its adaptation to persons with disabilities and persons with reduced mobility are set out in a memorandum signed in 2021 by the municipalities, the Ministry of Transport and Communications, companies under its jurisdiction and organisations representing persons with disabilities.
According to the data of last year, more than 220,000 persons with disabilities lived in Lithuania.
