Penza, 11 February 2015. PenzaNews. The Penza region governor Vasily Bochkarev has suggested introducing toll fare for extended parking at the Penza-1 train station square.

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“We have to make it commercial. First 30 minutes, like in most cities, is free of charge. And if you stick around for longer than 30 minutes, like we usually do, you should pay the upkeep for the territory,” said the head of the region during the meeting with regional worker union representatives on Wednesday, February 11.

According to Vasily Bochkarev, “the square should work too.”

“Asphalt must be replaced, it must be kept in a worthy state and cleaned every day. Our people smoke a lot: when you walk along the side walk, everything is littered with cigarette bums, sometimes bottles,” the governor noted.

Moreover, in his opinion, the question of usage potential for the city train station building must be researched more thoroughly.

“Perhaps the train station will also be used for some commercial purposes: for example, so that a person would be able to have some services available, buy some goods, or so on. We will develop this project. A huge building stands empty, no passengers, except for evenings when people come to depart or arrive on ‘Sura’ trains [Penza–Moscow]. But this giant stands idle during the day,” Vasily Bochkarev added.

The governor also said most transportation services will be moved from the bus station to the train station.

“For example, [we could] hitch passengers from nearby towns or villages to the location so that they would use commute trains, including a high-speed railway towards Samara. Not to the bus station, but to Penza-1. Passengers may come from Bessonovka, Kondol, Mokshan and so forth. We will think on how to use Penza-1 to increase comfort for passengers who will first of all use speed railways towards Samara,” said Vasily Bochkarev.