TRANSPORT AND COMMUNICATIONS

There are several means of public city transport in Perm: bus, trolley, tram, and taxi. These services are provided by four bus and one electrical transport companies which receive appropriate subsidies from the city budget to keep their costs low.

**BUS**
total number -	760
number of routes -	89
summary length -	1856 km

**TRAM**
total number -	255
number of routes -	11
summary length -	111 km

**TROLLEY-BUS**
total number -	122
number of routes -	10
summary length -	94 km

Perm is conveniently located near the center of the country at a crossroads of Europe and Asia. It is linked to the rest of the country by rail, major east-west highways, and the Kama River, which leads by waterways to five European seas.

Water transportation has always played an important role at Perm. Today the river fleet of the Kama River Steamship Company carries more than ten million tons of goods and nearly one million passengers annually. Direct passenger routes connect Perm with Moscow, Astrakhan, and Taganrog. River tours are available to Moscow, St. Petersburg, Rostov-on-Don, Taganrog, and other destinations.

Perm is connected with 64 cities of the CIS by air. There are two airports: Bakharevka (3 km from city center) serves primarily regional passenger transportation while Bolshoe Savino (located 18 km from city center) provides connections to more distant Russian and foreign locations. Customs and passport control services are available there. The possibility of constructing a larger international airport is currently being considered.

Telecommunications

The telecommunications giant, Uralsvyazinform, controls approximately 97% of the communications market of Perm. They provide a wide variety of services, including digital phone systems, cellular phone systems , paging, telex and X.25 data systems, "Teletex" and "Videotex" services. There are more than 200,000 phones in the city.