Short introduction
Valmiera is the largest town of Vidzeme – the northern historical region of Latvia. As of 2020, the population of Valmiera is 24 879. This town has its own municipal bus network consisting of 12 lines and connecting the centre with suburbs and railway station.
Criticism
I was bloodily naive when I thought that only the Latvian city of Daugavpils has a public transport system that no one in our Galaxy (even the transport enterprise and creators of the Galaxy themselves) can understand. When I took a look at the bus network diagram of Valmiera Town (available on the company’s website), I was not scared too much. I got scared when I saw the list of bus departures at each bus stop. Plenty of, guys! Dizziness!
Almost every route has several options and got a stable impression that each bus route goes to every single corner of the town. Most likely, this situation has arisen since the company cannot (or rather doesn’t want to?) create such a comfortable bus schedule, where passengers could conveniently change from route to route. Although, I would not be surprised that this is just laziness and a disregard for both the authorities of the transport company itself and surely the officials of the town of Valmiera. In any case, the 30 years that have passed since Latvia gained the independence have passed without any try to change the situation.
When I figured out what could be done in this case, one thing became clear: instead of 12 routes, 5-6 routes would be enough for the town. Only some of them would have special extension options during peak hours.
Back to chilling reality
Well, let’s see what we can do with what we actually have. In my diagram, I used already approved layout style similar to the diagram of Jekabpils bus network, I have slightly changed the appearance of stops and termini. I don’t know how readable my version of the bus network is, but I did everything I can. I also hope all responsible for public transportation in this beautiful town will recognize their previous mistakes and will revise the effectiveness and comfort of the network. Life is too short to have bad municipal transportation!
This network map is for non-commercial use only! To view or download a high-resolution map please click on the image below, then right-click and choose the action.
Title image credit: Z. Bulmeistere (lsm.lv)
