MOSCOW, November 20. /TASS/. Passenger traffic in Russian public transport edged up by 4.5% year on year in January - September 2023 and totaled 11 bln people, Transport Minister Vitaly Savelyev said at the ceremony of public transport transfer to regions.

"The volume of passenger carriage in public transport is growing steadily. In particular, 11 bln passengers were already carried over nine months of this year, which is 4.5% more than in the like period of the last year," the minister said.

Seven support programs of municipal passenger transport upgrading are now available for regions, Savelyev noted. Federal support amounts to about 260 bln rubles ($2.93 bln) from 2023 to 2025, with the increase by almost a factor of four against 2020-2022.