The disruption appears to have been instrumental in the Armenian government’s decision to cancel classes in schools across the country on Friday. Some universities switched to remote courses for the same reason.
The snowfall, which began on Thursday afternoon and continued less intensively the following day, caused huge traffic jams in Yerevan and brought public transport there to a halt. Bus drivers stopped working en masse and told commuters to get off, citing safety reasons. Many of the commuters were left fuming.
“We boarded the bus to get home,” a video posted on social media showed one angry woman telling a driver. “Now you are telling us mid-way through our journey to get off. What does this mean?”
Scores of people thus had no choice but to go home on foot. Many did so after spending hours waiting at bus stops in vain hopes of catching another bus or trolleybus.
Mayor Tigran Avinian’s office commented on the chaos at around 10 p.m. local time, informing citizens about the “complicated work of public transport” and possible “delays” resulting from it. Avinian attended, meanwhile, a meeting of members of the ruling Civil Contract party that apparently discussed unrelated issues.
Avinian aired a video address to Yerevan residents only at around midnight, after one of his predecessors and main political opponents, Hayk Marutian, seized on widespread criticism of the municipality’s response to the snowfall forecast by meteorologists last week. Marutian pointed out, in particular, that the buses are not fitted with winter tires which the Armenian Interior Ministry made mandatory for all vehicles late last year.
Avinian countered that their all-season tires are good enough for winter conditions. “But it doesn’t mean that in case of heavy snowfall public transport doesn’t have problems,” he said.
Babken Pipoyan, who leads a leading consumer rights group, dismissed the mayor’s explanations as unconvincing. Pipoyan said the fact that the bus drivers were too scared to work in the snow spoke volumes about the safety of their vehicles. He claimed that many of their tires are worn out and should have been replaced by the municipal bus company months ago.
The paralyzed buses and trolleybus were mostly purchased by the municipality in the last few years as part of “reforms” regularly touted by Avinian and his office. These and other acquisitions planned by the office are the main declared rationale for a significant increase in bus fares in Yerevan that took effect on February 1.
Marutian and other opposition leaders have been urging citizens to ignore the higher fares and keep paying 100 drams (25 U.S. cents) per bus ride. Earlier this week, Avinian threatened to crack down on commuters continuing to heed the opposition calls.