St Petersburg is about to initiate the construction of the fastest tram system in the world. The Nadzemny Express (NADEX) project will include vehicles that are able to run at a speed of up to 100 km/h which, in the urban transport sector, actually represents high-speed. NADEX is one of the most ambitious projects developed by the Russian Federation. The objective is to re-launch tram transport in the city located on the river Neva which, for a long period of time, had the largest tram network in the world. This was also the place were an electric tram made the first test runs in history. Lately, the surface rail transport system has been losing ground as the city became a tourist attraction. That is why the municipality decided to shut down a large part of the network that ran through areas with high tourist interest.
Towards the end of the ’80s, St Petersburg was the city with the largest tram network in the world. The lines covered 340 km of urban rail. The record lasted until 1995, when the Russian city came second, after Melbourne (Australia). In 2008, less than 220 km of tram track were still in operation. The reason why a large part of the network was shut down was because of the areas with high tourist interest. The city located on the river Neva became the largest tourist attraction in Russia. The collapse of the tram system disrupted the transport flow, thus generating traffic jams and increasing the level of pollution in the city. Today, St Petersburg is the most crowded city in Russia and one of the most polluted.
The development of the underground transport system faces a major obstacle: the topography of the city. St Petersburg was built by Tsar Petru over a network of sewage tunnels and marshes from the river Neva. Therefore, the solution to expand the underground system in the areas where the tram lines were shut down is out of the question.
The best solution would be to develop the surface transport system, mainly the tram. However, its running rails should be elevated over bridges, tunnels and viaducts over the river Neva. They say that once finalized, the NADEX network will become one of the most spectacular transport systems in the world, providing people with unique sceneries.
NADEX will connect the south area and the centre of the city and, in the future, any location from the administrative map of St Petersburg in less than 20 minutes. The system was designed to run at a speed of 100 km/h. In order to have an overall image, let’s just say that the fastest underground trains are designed to run at a maximum speed of 80 km/h, but rarely the networks allow an operational speed higher than 60 km/h.
Large tram suppliers and manufacturers compete for the project
During a first stage, NADEX will serve an area of the city that has around 660,000 inhabitants, 190,000 of which are commuters. The system is designed to have a transport capacity of 270,000 passengers/day. This constitutes a problem in the long-term, because the population growth rate in St Petersburg is the highest in Russia. Demographic studies and the Transport Master Plan 2005-2025 showed that the urban agglomeration will increase by 30% and that the area where NADEX will operate will have a population of 1.3 million inhabitants by 2025. Plans are already in progress for the extension of the NADEX network. In 2005, Nadzemny Express JSC was created, which will handle the implementation of this project, in the spring of 2008, city governor Valentina Matviyenko opened the envelops containing the names of the companies that qualified to take over the project. The companies are: Strelna Express (Bombardier and Vinci), Yuzhny Express (Alstom, Bouygues and Transdev), Northern Capital Express (Siemens and Strabag), Express One (Ansaldo and Skoda Transportation) and a Japanese consortium led by Mitsui. In order to implement this project, the municipality is considering the creation of a public-private partnership (PPP) and a 30-year concession of the line.
On March 10, 2010, the municipality approved the organisation of a tender for the construction of the first section, between Pulkovo Airport and Moskovsky Station. The winners of this tender will be announced by the end of 2010. The competitors were the same companies that bid to take over the implementation of the entire project.
by Alin Lupulescu
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