Cross-border vehicle traffic has come to a standstill and the city-owned company is struggling to make ends meet. City officials have not ruled out suspending the company's operations.
Transservis-N, the company that has managed the border crossing queue in Narva, has been struggling financially for two years. In better times, when thousands of vehicles crossed the border, the company paid dividends to the city of Narva. Now it is asking its owner for financial support to stay afloat — €50,000 this year and twice that amount next year. The city of Narva has yet to decide what to do with the company.
"If we shut it down, it will be very difficult to get it up and running again. The buildings will deteriorate and what would we do with the parking lot? We are still finding some use for it today. Cars from Latvia, Lithuania and Finland are parked at the Transservis-N lot, belonging to tourists who cross the border on foot. That brings in some revenue. But the number of Finnish tourists and people crossing the border here in general is steadily declining. We will start discussing this. We may indeed have to make a difficult decision," Narva Mayor Jaan Toots said.
The mayor nevertheless hopes that the border will reopen to vehicle traffic and that the company will not have to close.
Narva's opposition believes there is no point in holding out false hope as border traffic is only likely to decline further during the war, rather than increase. City officials must take this into account. Keeping the company operating solely to provide parking makes little sense.
"These are not even cars belonging to Narva residents and this is certainly not an essential service for us. I think it would make sense to temporarily shut down the company and reestablish it if the border does reopen for some reason. But that can only happen after the war ends," Narva City Council member Katri Raik said.
Narva city officials will decide the fate of Transservis-N as they prepare next year's budget. Vehicle traffic across the border in Narva was suspended in early 2024 when Russia began rebuilding the vehicle terminal at the Ivangorod border crossing. The work is reportedly scheduled to be completed this December.
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