The history of public transport in Baranavichy springs from the end of the first decade of the XX century. Hundred years ago, in early 1909 Vilna omnibus–bus partnership received the permission from the Ministry of communication lines to carry the passengers on the routes Brest — Slutsk — Babruysk — Maghileu, Vostrau — Daugavpils — Kaunas, Bialystok — Baranavichy and on several other routes. In the next 1910 on of the first regular bus routes in Belarus began to function: Baranavichy — Bialystok.

Just before the World War II ended, the life in totally destroyed Baranavichy began to restore. One of the crucial tasks was to create the passenger motor transport system. This began in 1944 practically from zero. August 21, 1944 is considered to be a birthday of the bus fleet. At that day two captured buses “Bussing” departed to their first trips on the routes “Baranavichy — Navahrudak” and “Baranavichy — Dziatlava”.

Today it’s very hard to define, what bus became the first used on the city routes. But it is known that the first city route (it is also unknown if it had the numerical designation at that time) already existed in 1949. It was connecting the railway station (Baranavichy-Palyeskiya it seems) and the running shed. In total according to the state on January 1, 1949 there was 8 buses in the city, 6 of them belonged to the ministry of transport, 1 to the ministry of communication lines, 1 to the public health ministry.

Due to the development of country's transport system in 1950 — 1952 domestically produced buses PAZ 651 and ZiS 155 began to be received. According to the state on January 1, 1951 there were 21 buses in the city, 18 of them belonged to the ministry of transport: 14 GAZ 03-30, 1 ZiS 8 or ZiS 16, 1 ZiS 154, 2 were the foreign (this is about 2 captured “Bussing” buses it seems).

The interesting fact: in 1951 the fare at the only city route from railway station to Tratsiaki was 1 ruble, if someone had to get from the railway station to the center of the city or from the center to Tratsiaki or vice versa, the fare was already only 50 kopecks. In addition, in the daytime on the first route 4 buses were running, in the peak hours — 5 buses. The traffic was beginning at 7:30, and stopped at 24:00.

In 1951 7 suburban routes existed.

In 1955 the motor transport administration of BSSR decided to organize the independent services — Baranavichy bus fleet, that was named “Motor Transport Passenger Bureau”. It was created on the base of small workshops with primitive equipment and low productivity. At that time the fleet consisted of 35 buses with the middle capacity 24 places, 29 taxi-cabs “Pobyeda” and 9 lorries. The chief of the enterprise was N. I. Krauchanka.

On November 25, 1958 there was the appeal to the director of Baranavichy bus station to open the city route in Lyakhavichy “the center of the city — the railway station” with two bus stops and the period of operation from 8:30 till 18:00.

In 1961 in the regional newspaper „The Banner of Communism” («Знамя Камунізму») a short commentary about the opening of new cargo taxi route appeared: “To city and region citizens’ information! The regular traffic of cargo taxi on the route Baranavichy — Grabautsy — Kryzhyki — Vyalikiya Luki — Volna — Zavinnye is opened. Cargo taxi will start from Baranavichy at 6-00, 11-00 and 16-00.” In the middle of past century cargo taxi in USSR used to be a lorry, in the body of which (mostly with a box) there were benches for the passengers and a place for luggage, and in back header there was gate and stairs. This lorries very often stood by the central marketplace, city council or the railway station. The townsmen used it to deliver purchases home, and the region citizens to deliver purchases to their villages.

In 1961 the manager of taxi company was comrade Pihuleuski.

In December of 1964 there were 5 routes with the length of 39,1 km with 35 buses running on them in the city. There were 107 bus stops in Baranavichy. In 1966 there were already 7 city routes in the city of total length 48,5 km and 46 buses running on them. The city executive committee obliged the head of the fleet to use only LAZ and PAZ 652 buses at the city routes.

The functioning of the city transport in the end of 60th and in the beginning of 70th was unsatisfactory. During the ispection on June 13, 1968 numerous violations were uncovered. On the route no. 1 instead of ten buses there were running only seven, on the route no. 2 six instead of eight, on the third route there were only four buses instead of seven. The same violations were noticed also on the routes no. 5 and no. 7. In 1970 there were running only 40-45 buses on the rotes instead of planned 58. That was concerned with bad material resources and lack of spare parts. At that time on the city routes a new minibus “Latvia” was tested; 10 days it was running on the one route, lately on the other route.

According to the state on 30.11.1968 the bus fleet served 60 routes daily with 129 buses. The total length of the routes was 5 535 km, more then 75 000 passengers were carried daily. According to the state on January 1, 1969 there were 173 buses in the bus fleet, only 137 of them were in order.

In the beginning of 70th the idea to make the bus fleet independent appeared and in 1975 on the base of the old one two new enterprises were created — the taxi company and the automobile enterprise no. 2448. Before this partition the head of the common enterprise was comrade Zahradski. A. A. Zahradski leaded the automobile enterprise no. 2448 till 1982.

Before 1975 the main buses of Baranavichy routes were LAZ 695E and LAZ 695M. The last of them were on the routes approximately in 1979. Beginning from the middle of 70th the most mass bus in Baranavichy became LiAZ 677.

On April 1, 1975 the city public transport started using the ticket system of fare.

In December of 1975 the bus garage for 200 buses in Telmana street was set in operation. After this the modern Hungarian buses of high capacity Ikarus 255, Ikarus 256 and Ikarus 260 started to come to the city.

The first three Hungarian buses Ikarus 260 with little narrow vents came to Baranavichy in the end of 1974. Since 1975 till 1984 9-12 new Ikarus 260 buses came to the city every year, the exception was only 1979, when only one bus came. Firstly those motor vehicles were running on the intercity bus routes, that were spreading for all the regions of BSSR except Vitebsk region and also the cities of Lithuanian SSR and RSFSR at that time.

The diagnostic line was created in the automobile enterprise, the circulating water supply using the “Kristall” equipment was implemented. The enterprise got the title “The fleet of guaranteed safety of the road traffic”.

In 1975, Minsk Office of Central Research Institute of Urban Design has developed a comprehensive transport system (hereinafter — CTS) for the city of Baranavichy in the billing period ending in 1990 with distinction as the first phase in 1980. After the calculations of ridership on the shuttle transport, the possibility of two versions of its development was regarded. The first called for coexistence of two forms of public transport in the city — buses and trolleybuses (as early as 1985), while the second called for the development in the city only a bus with a different (medium and high) capacity of rolling-stock. The first option entailed a trolleybus network length of 16,5 km and the establishment of 4 routes. It was planned to build trolleybus depot at the intersection of Pralyetarskaya (Proletarian) and Badaka (Badak) street for 55 units of rolling-stock, as well as three of traction power stations. The lining of trolleybus routes was planned on Zhukava (Zhukov), Pralyetarskaya (Proletarian), Kirava (Kirov), Telmana (Thaelmann), Lenin, Savetskaya (Soviet), Prytytskaha (Prytytsky), Charnysheuskaha (Charnysheuski), Kamsamolskaya (Komsomol), 50 hod ULKSM (50 years of the VLKSM) and Rozy Luksemburh (Rosa Luxemburg) streets. In addition, the first version of the urban public transport development called for the construction of three combined bus-trolleybus dispatcher areas with places for sediment of rolling-stock on Savyetskaya (Soviet), Pralyetarskaya (Proletarian) and Zhukava (Zhukov) streets. It was planned that in 1990 the length of the network of bus routes will be 56 km, and trolleybus routes 16,5 km at a density of bus network on the level of 1,9 km/km2 and 0,55 km/km2 of trolleybus network. The plans of the previous CTS founders assumed that in 1990 public transport (136 buses and 55 trolleybuses) will transport 78 300 000 passengers (including 49 600 000 carried by buses and 28 700 000 carried by trolleybuses). Unfortunately, due to a backlog in the implementation of the planned development of the main-street network and transport infrastructure the city has subsequently been forced to temporarily abandon the development of electric transport, which requires more landscaping and the relevant dimensions of the streets.

According to the general layout from September 7, 1978 the organization of the trolleybus communication in the city was planned.

In 1982 in the position of the chief of automobile enterprise no. 2448 A. A. Zahradski was replaced by M?. M?. Pyarminau.

The first two buses Ikarus 280 (with the wide vents) appeared in 1982 and started working on the route no. 7, which had the shortest interval: 6-7 minutes in the peak hours.

Till the end of 80th only yellow Hungarian buses came to the city, only in 1977 three orange buses came.

From May 5, 1982 the share taxi started operating again in the city on the route no. 1: “Palyeski railway station — Tratsiaki”, the fair was 20 kopecks. This route was operated by the RAF minibuses, which belonged to the taxi company.

In 1986, exactly in September the construction of the new bus station in Fralyankova (Fralyankou) street began. The first buses departured from its platforms on February 19-20, 1988, but the old bus station on Prytytskaha street was officially closed only on June 1, 1991.

In 1987 the automobile enterprise no. 2448 was renamed to the Bus Depot no. 2.

In 1987 the first group of the Bus Depot no. 2, that served the city rotes, was divided into brigades and every of them had the concrete buses and routes; the interval of the garage numbers was individual for every brigade. This was the quantity and quality state of the brigades in that year (the numeration of brigades is relative:
- brigade 1 (routes no. 1, 2, 15), buses: 9 Ikarus 260, 20 LiAZ 677;
- brigade 2 (routes no. 3, 6), buses: 25 Ikarus 260, 6 Ikarus 280;
- brigade 3 (routes no. 4, 10), buses: 4 Ikarus 260, 14 LiAZ 677;
- brigade 4 (routes no. 5, 5a, 11), buses: 17 Ikarus 260, 4 LiAZ 677;
- brigade 5 (routes no. 7, 14), buses: 7 Ikarus 260, 1 LiAZ 677, 16 Ikarus 280;
- brigade 6 (routes no. 8, 12), buses: 14 Ikarus 260, 5 LiAZ 677, 9 Ikarus 280;
- brigade 7 (routes no. 9, 13, 16), buses: 2 Ikarus 260, 22 LiAZ 677.

In August in 1989 the director of the Bus Depot no. 2 reported: “now the announcement of the bus stops in the buses will be realized by pleasant female voice written on the tape recorder”.

In the last years before the USSR breakdown several Ikarus 280 buses with two-leaf doors and Ikarus 263 appeared in the city.

In the beginning of December of 1992 two buses Jelcz 120 M appeared in Baranavichy, and on December 19 after running it in and training the personnel by the polish specialists they started serving routes no. 6 and no. 8. It was a gift from the city executive committee for the Bus Depot no. 2 for its 50-th anniversary. In that year there were 260 buses in the Bus Depor, and the staff consisted of 918 people. The first two LiAZ 5256 appeared in the beginning of April of 1993 and cost 8 000 000 rubles of those days each. It was planned to buy roughly eight by the end of 1993, but the plans didn’t turn into reality. In the end of June or in the beginning of July 1994 two buses LiAZ 5256 appeared in the Bus Depot, but assembled by Lida pilot-production plant “Nyeman”. In 1996 one of domestic LiAZ 5256 was given to Baranavichy bus fleet for good work by the deputy minister of transport.

In 1993 — 1994 in the streets of the city during the days-off were running Ikarus 260 buses with guards, the fare in which was twice more than a fare in the usual city buses. The routes were forking off the bus stop near the motor unit works in Haharyna (Gagarin) str. (“the Market”) to the biggest microdistricts of the city — Paunochny (the North), Uskhodni (the East), Tratsiaki. It seems that the attempt was unsuccessful (almost empty passenger compartments of the “expresses” was the evidence of it), and the experiment ended on it.

From the February 1, 1994 the night bus-taxi started running on the route “Parkavaya str. — Palyeski railway station — Tsentralny (the Central) railway station”, which spreaded to the main microdistricts of the city, but on February 13 of the same year it was closed because of the little passenger traffic and unprofitableness.

The first six Ikarus 280 buses from Germany arrived to the Bus Depot no. 2 in the end of June of 1996. In the end of May the vice-chairman of the city executive committee was in the business trip and negotiated buying used Ikarus buses. Interesting fact: in the “Nash Kray”(eng. “Our Land”) newspaper these buses were called new... Before October of 1996 1 billion rubles was accumulated for buying in Germany four-five “new” buses more, and in general in 1996 was bought seven city buses Ikarus 280 and three suburban Ikarus 260. According to the state for October 20, 1998 there were 27 buses from Germany, and by the end of the year it was planned to buy 10 more buses. It was planned at that time, that the busses will operate only 6-7 years, but in practice this time appeared to be longer.

The first low-floor bus MAZ 103 appeared in the city in September of 1997. During the year the city bought only three buses of this type. After that, beginning from November of 1998, when two first buses MAZ 104 came to Baranavichy transport enterprise, the regular purchase of this model of 12-meter buses started. By 2006 17 of them was bought.

In 2001 — 2002 Baranavichy sad goodbye to epochal bus — LiAZ 677, and exactly — LiAZ 677M. There were many versions of its alias: from lenient “long loaf” to humiliating “cattle truck”, but for almost three decades it was the most mass bus in the soviet cities, that carried tens of millions of people every day all over the USSR.

The first articulated Belarusian bus MAZ 105 appeared on the routes on April 8, 2002. This bus became the first in Baranavichy to recieve in the beginning of 2004 the autoinformator.

In the difficult years of after-soviet reality the Bus Depot no. 2 looked worthy against a background of the other transport enterprises of the country and generally saved the city and the suburban route net, that existed before the USSR collapse.

The first automatic voice informator appeared in 2004 in the first articulated bus MAZ 105. In the beginning the voice was female, then, when the installation of autoinformators in all buses began, the voice was changed into male. In March of the same year 2004 the first minibus “Gazelle” appeared in the Bus Depot no. 2.

In 2005 there were 23 express lines in the city, the carriage of passengers on which were realized by minibuses.

On April 27, 2006 the first single triaxial bus MAZ 107 appeared in our city. In total in 2006 10 city MAZ buses were bought (to compare — in 2002 only 2 city MAZ buses were bought — 1 MAZ 104 and 1 MAZ 105).

In 2006 the carriage of passengers was realized by 37 city lines (including share taxi lines) and 52 suburban lines. The length of the bus routes network was 74,4 km at a 1,36 km/km2 density of network. In the inner city routes during the year transported 83,6 million passengers with the medium-range travel 3 km. The average network interval of motion in peak hours was 5,3 min, the amount of rolling- stock in motion during peak hours — 103 units.

During the half-yearly period beginning from the end of 2006 and ending on March of 2007 two polish buses Jelcz 120M disappeared from the city streets forever. In 2007 the only bus Ikarus 263 was also utilized.

In the end of 2007 two first buses Nyeman 5201 appeared in Baranavichy. In the end of 2007 the city also bought two city buses MAZ 206, and also two intercity buses MAZ 152 with air-conditioner, microwave oven and mini-bar. The buses were noticed in the beginning of 2008. In total, in the end of 2007 the Bus Depot no. 2 had nearly 220 buses in the fleet; during the year 2007 25 buses were bought.

In the second half of 2008 Bus Depot no. 2 besides carriage of passengers began to operate cargo transportation. Two current-technology tractive units DAF XF105 with semi trailers Koegel for them were bought.

During 2008 three city bus routes were opened: no. 25, 28, 2. Percentage quantity growth of the city routes was 12 % (from 25 to 28), it looks like there was nothing alike since the very beginning of the public transport in Baranavichy.

On January 26, 2009 RUE “Baranavichy Bus Depot no. 2" was reorganized into Open Joint-Stock Company Baranavichy Bus Depot.

Year 2009 became very indicative for public transport of Baranavichy. Exactly in this year modern technologies (internet and GPS-navigation) stopped to be tomorrow and began to be today. In the end of April — beginning of may Baranavichy Bus Depot OJSC introduced own website http://barautopark.by/, and approximately in this time it occurred, that Baranavichy city busses are gradually equipped with navigation system GPS, which allowed to control the traffic and observance of timetable with great precision (up to 1 m) on-line. The satellite constantly translates the movement of busses with accompany information (the time of time-outs, the average speed on the route, the fuel consumption) on the big monitor in dispatching point. And it will help in case of breakdown of the vehicle: in this case the traffic controller will send the bus for substitution immediately. Shortly with the help of GPS-navigation it will be possible to track thoroughly the intensity of traffic flows; that will give the opportunity to optimize the functioning of city transport. As the experts affirm, the new system, in spite of apparent dearness, completely repays for itself and justifies expended funds, as the outdated systems of managing the transport are at a considerable price, but their facilities at all points are worse than new GPS-navigators. According to the information from the April of 2009, somehow 50 busses were equipped with GPS-navigation. As the result of equipping of rolling-stock with GPS-navigation, it was no longer needed to contain the control points of communication, which were eliminated in early December 2009.

In the evening of June 29, 2009 there was a downpour in Baranavichy: during more than two hours, when inclement weather continued, there was 59 mm of precipitation in the city (almost twice a decade norm), besides natural phenomenon is considered as dangerous (or elemental), when during twelve hours there is 50 mm of precipitation. Because o this the serious problems for city public transport appeared. According to the head of transportation service of Baranavichy Bus Depot OJSC Vitaly Kuretsky, because of weather conditions the time-table of city buses moved for 15-20 minutes. Mostly, the delay because of big puddles appearing in Fabrychnaya, Fralyankova, Kamsamolskata, Brestskaya and other streets.

In the end of June 2009 the last white-green Nyeman 5256 (LiAZ 5256) was written off. After 16 years after purchase of the first bus in 1993 from the factory in Likino-Dulyevo the history of these buses in Baranavichy ended. When it turned out, that in addition to the last LiAZ/Nyeman were written off and were preparing to utilization two last city (ex-German) buses Ikarus 260, the authors of the page www.bartrans.net decided to try to influence their destiny, that's why we decided to write a letter to the director of Private Company Baranavichy Bus Depot V. V. Puchko. V. V. Puchko liked the idea and we hope soon one of condemned Ikaruses will have the second life.

First refreshed vehicles of first generation from Minsk appeared on the area of Open Joint-Stock Company Company Baranavichy Bus Depot on June 29, 2009. These were two buses MAZ 107 (probably the model is MAZ 107.466, which foresees the engine Mercedes-Benz OM 906 EURO-3 and the automatic gearbox Voith). As it turned out some days later, this two buses were first from the total lot of 13 machines produced by Minsk Automobile Plant, which came to Baranavichy Bus Depot OJSC during only eight days from June 29 to July 6, 2009. This lot of new buses became probably the biggest simultaneous replenishment of bus enterprise of our city for the whole its history since 1944. Baranavichy received three city buses of big class MAZ 103, three 15-meter single buses of extremely big class MAZ 107 and seven articulated buses of extremely big class MAZ 105 (“accordions”) at once — all machines are from refreshed first generation. MAZ 103 and MAZ 107 buses are equipped with four passenger places with folding armrests, and in the middle door for more convenient boarding and drop-off of wheelchair-bound invalids and parents with baby carriages the folding ladder is foreseen in the buses. All busses from the latest lot are equipped with external electronic indicator boards and information system with diagram board in passenger compartment for notification of passengers. “The arrival of new buses still doesn’t mean that there will be more buses in the streets of the city and they will run more often. The vehicles are refreshed, some buses are discarded”, — said the head of transportation service of Baranavichy Bus Depot OJSC Vitaly Kuretsky during the interview for Intex-Press newspaper. Obviously, Mr. Kuretsky thought, that arrival of 10 new machines of extremely high capacity would lead to discard of ten buses Ikarus 280 which worked out their assets. By July 11, 2009 MAZ 103 and MAZ 107 buses were registered in State Automobile Inspection and on Monday July 13, 2009 they appeared on the routes.

On September 23, 2009 the session of town council of deputies was held. On the session the problems of transportation services for city population were discussed. During the discussion the following information was presented. Currently there are 240 bus stops in the city and 134 of them don’t conform the standards of city development (95 of them are not even illuminated). The speed of vehicles refreshing approached 11,6 % in 2007 and 8 % in 2008. New buses are bought at the expence of the own funds, inpayments from transport acquisition, and bank credits as well. As the nearest priority tasks for city authorities and the direction of bus depot are named the following: the organization of transport for students of the new buildings of Baranavichy State University at Masherau ave. from the side of the route terminal “Sanatoium-Preventorium “Mahistralny”, the increasing of the amount of buses from the center of the city to the area of Parkavaya street and the provision of transport communication for the dwellers of the recent developments at Hayevaya street and Masherau avenue.

On August 28, 2009 the first issue of „Bus Depot Journal” («Веснік Аўтапарку») with circulation of 299 items appeared. The first editor in chief became Vadzim Nikalaeu.

From the beginning of October 2009 the labels of “BrestAblAutaTrans” (Brest Region Automobile Transport) appeared on the buses of Baranavichy Bus Depot OJSC.

On November 2, 2009 after long-term break in the buses of general city lines conductors appeared again. This innovation was the continuation of steps made by BrestVoblAutaTrans (Brest Region Automobile Transport) and its general manager Ananiy Ananyevich Khvastyuk (former director of bus depot in Pinsk) directed to increasing of amount of passengers paying fare. In April of 2009 during the interview for „The Evening Brest” («Vyecherniy Bryest») Mr. Khvastyuk said the following: „Not everyone liked the Pinsk experience of conductors application on the city lines. For example, Brest gortrans (city transport — author) objects, but we will increase the amount of conductors in the buses.” At the beginning of the experiment conductors appeared on the line no. 26. The choice of the line wasn’t accidental — 99 % of passengers of the shortest line formed the employees of BSZ ZAO „ATLANT” (who probably were not used to know that the buses were not still factory and free of charge, but the city and had to be payed for), who rode from one final stop to another. So the conductors din’t have to stretch — they let the plant workers enter the slowly filling bus through the front door on the final stop... Fortunately, in March 2010 the head of passenger transportation service brigade no. 1 of Baranavichy Bus Depot OJSC Dzmitry Radchanka in an interview with one of the city newspapers has officially confirmed that the introduction of the post of conductor is not planned. The experiment on the route no. 26 showed that the majority of passengers used monthly ticket.