Avtodor studied tariffs for travel on the M-12 highway and found them reasonable

The current tariffs on the M-12 toll highway are “economically justified” and beneficial for family trips, Avtodor said. This is a response to President Vladimir Putin’s earlier instruction to the government and state-owned companies to analyze the cost of travel on the road and present “proposals for determining optimal tariffs.” Kommersant compared the expenses of drivers on the M-12 with the expenses of air passengers and railway users.

On March 15, the deadline for the order of the head of state, which Vladimir Putin gave earlier government and Avtodor. On December 14, during a direct line with Vladimir Putin, Muscovite Sergei Gvozdev-Karelin asked whether the tariff for travel on the M-12 from Moscow to Kazan was fair, which, according to the president’s interlocutor, would reach 6 thousand rubles. (at that time the route was not fully launched, prices were not known). The head of state promised to check the information. On the same day, Avtodor announced official data: from Moscow to the exit to Innopolis (located 40 km from Kazan on the shore of the Kuibyshev reservoir) the fee will be 4.48 thousand rubles. for a passenger car. On December 21, M-12 was opened in its entirety, and then the prices valid for the remaining sections were announced.

But the issue of tariffs was not removed from the agenda: on February 12, following the results of the direct line, Vladimir Putin instructed the government and Avtodor to analyze prices for M-12 and “present proposals for determining optimal tariffs, taking into account its demand by residents of the relevant constituent entities of the Russian Federation and commercial organizations.”

On Friday, Avtodor said that the order had been fulfilled, the tariffs had been “further” analyzed: they were “economically justified for users.”

The state-owned company noted that travel from Moscow to Innopolis can cost the user 672 rubles. cheaper with a 15 percent discount as part of the loyalty program. “Competition with free roads, railway transport and planes is also a limiting factor for tariff growth,” the state-owned company said. “For a family of three, traveling by car is more profitable.”

On Friday, it was possible to buy a Moscow-Kazan plane ticket for 2 thousand rubles on the Yandex.Schedule service. per person or 6 thousand rubles. for three (flight 1.5 hours). From the calculations presented by Avtodor it follows that the “family” benefit arises provided that a family of three, using the maximum 15 percent discount, spends less than 2.2 thousand rubles on 800 km of the toll highway. for gasoline. At the current price of AI-92 in Moscow (about 50 rubles per liter), this amount can buy 44 liters (the amount does not take into account depreciation costs). This means that the consumption should be 5.5 liters per 100 km, which corresponds to the extra-urban cycle of a Lada Granta with a 90-horsepower engine.

A flight with luggage will be more expensive, adds the coordinator of the Blue Buckets movement, Petr Shkumatov, in addition, you should also take into account the cost of a taxi from the airport to the city. Based on this, he estimates a trip for a family of three by plane from Moscow to Kazan at 14–15 thousand rubles. one way. Let us add that the cheapest ticket (seat) on the train will cost 1.1 thousand rubles, the travel time will be 13 hours.

Avtodor also added that, compared to the free alternative M-7, users save travel time, fuel, and, in case of congestion on the federal highway, also an overnight stay (on Friday, using the M-7 from Moscow to Kazan it was possible to get 12 hours, according to Yandex).

The M-12 is also beneficial for cargo carriers, the state-owned company noted, since a flight from Moscow to Tatarstan can be completed in one driver’s working day.

It is unknown whether Avtodor and the government presented “proposals to determine optimal tariffs,” as was written in the president’s instructions.

“Of course, one could agree with all these justifications,” says the editor-in-chief of the Za Rulem magazine, Maxim Kadakov. “But the cost of travel is approaching the cost of a flight. It is obvious that with the increase in the number of toll roads and with the rise in tariffs, it will become more and more expensive to move around the country.” In 2024, we recall that in the Moscow region it is planned to open toll backups of the MKAD – the Mytishchi Expressway and the Yuzhno-Lytkarinskaya Highway.

“There will be no reduction in tariffs for the M-12,” states Vice-President of the National Automobile Union Anton Shaparin. “Avtodor loses sight of the fact that large infrastructure projects pay off only through mass flow. At the same time, tariffs for them must correspond to market realities and the level of income of the population.”

Let us recall that the authorities have already decided to include in the M-12 sections of the M-7 in Tatarstan, Bashkortostan, the Perm Territory, the Sverdlovsk Region (they remain free) and new sections that should be completed by the end of the year, including the bypass of Nizhnekamsk— Naberezhnye Chelny and the Dyurtyuli-Achit section. Driving on roads built from scratch will be subject to tolls. In 2025, the route will be extended to Tyumen according to a similar principle: the Yekaterinburg-Tyumen section will be expanded to four lanes. The new southern bypass of Tyumen will likely be built at the expense of extra-budgetary investors, as Deputy Prime Minister Marat Khusnullin previously stated.

Ivan Buranov