Buses No. 34 and 57., as well as trolley No. 20 will instead be served by municipal mini buses starting March 5.
Tram routes No. 4 and No. 6 will go out of service starting March 3.
The tram No. 1 will be rerouted through the Riga Central Market, replacing the No. 4 line entirely. Meanwhile, the tram No. 6, which overlaps significantly with tram No. 1 and 11, will go out of service.
This means the last two stops of tram No. 6 will be reachable by transferring to the No. 11 tram.
Riga Transport is expecting the delivery of 20 new trams it has ordered, and once they've arrived, lines No. 1 and 11 will be serviced entirely by low-floor trams, said Zaķis.
The municipal company currently has 27 low-floor trams used on lines No. 1 and 11.
The Pilsēta Cilvēkiem urban activist organization has already criticized the new route for tram No. 1, saying it will slow service and decrease accessibility for some passengers.
Transport expert Tālis Linkaits thinks these changes won't make public transportation more attractive to Rigans. He says the No. 1 tram will become slower, and that buses on this route already carry passengers faster.
"The tram No. 6 was necessary so that people of Jugla, Teika, Grīziņkalns and VEF [neighborhoods] could get to the National Theater or the passenger port, and their children could get to the music school on Ausekļa st. There are currently no other alternatives," said Linkaits.
The municipal Riga Transport (Rīgas Satiksme) company carried 0.5% fewer passengers on year in 2017.
