In the past years, more and more cities have chosen to elaborate strategies on the development of the transport and infrastructure system in order to favour the public transport to the detriment of individual transport. Due to the contribution it has to reducing emissions, energy consumption, congestion and its answer to mobility needs, the underground system becomes more and more appreciated by the citizens of a city, and gains ground on the other modes of transport.
The increase of the urbanisation level and the need for the deli-very of efficient transport services should determine the attractiveness of the public transport through viable criteria in the choice of implementing underground projects. For a city, the construction of the underground system can offer significant benefits on the long run from the economic, social and environmental points of view. Many studies analysing the level and the need for investments in the urban underground transport infrastructure and related services indicate that the value of public benefits exceeds investment costs on the long run.
As regards the establishment of mobi-lity strategies, the city authorities focus their efforts on the promotion of the underground public transport by launching underground network construction and extension projects. Despite increased investments, the development potential of underground systems is high enough because, there will be 560 cities with a population of over 1 million citizens by 2015.
Within the development strategy of the Ukrainian transport system by 2010, one of the main aspects of infrastructure development aims the underground system construction and extension in Kiev, Kharkiv, Dnipropetrovsk and Donetsk. “Ukraine is the only country which has built five airports in 18 months. High-speed trains were launched and today we’re working on the development of the Kharkiv, Dnipropetrovsk and Donetsk overland subway”, declared the ministry of Infrastructure Borys Kolesnikov in October.
Donetsk has a population of over 1 million inhabitants, and long-term estimates show that the urbanisation level will register increases. The economy of the Donetsk region is also dominated by the coal and steel industry, and following the economic development, 17 coal mines and 6 steel factories were developed. Under these circumstances, the economic development is the primordial factor that will determine the increase of the city population, and consequently this will impose the elaboration of transport strategies which consider the provision of an efficient and fast system which at the same time contributes to the traffic congestion reduction.
This means that authorities are aware of the challenges faced by the transports, adopting the decision of developing of an underground system in order to answer mobility needs. Therefore, at the middle of 2012, the Ukrainian Railways has announced that it has initiated the design of a surface underground network in Donetsk, the project implementation being estimated for 2013. At the end of December, the project will undergo an analysis and if it is approved, the construction works will be initiated for the execution line that will connect the airport, the railway station and the city centre.
At the same time, the sustainable deve-lopment strategy launched by the authorities in Dnipropetrovsk, one of the greatest industrial cities in Ukraine, aims at extending the underground system for which EBRD and EIB have announced the avai-lability to credit the project whose purpose is the optimisation of the public transport system. By the end of the year, EBRD announces the tender on the purchase of consultancy services for development and project update.
The project implementation providing the construction of a 4 km-line (and three stations) will determine the provision of an efficient, fast and environmentally-friendly transport for the city citizens. After the project completion, the traffic flow will double to over 20 million passengers by 2026, which will determinate the increase of the public transport share and impli-citly the significant congestion reduction. “Our goal is to support the development of clean, efficient and modern urban transport in Ukraine and the Dnipropetrovsk metro project is part of this strategy. The existing transport system, which is based on ageing and polluting buses and minibuses, is no longer good for the city. By introducing a sustainable and clean urban transport we bring a range of environmental and economic benefits, such as travel time savings, a reduction of private car travel and lower emissions”, declared Jean-Patrick Marquet, EBRD Director for Municipal and Environmental Infrastructure.
Bulgaria is another state that, within the public transport development, focuses on the underground system, the authorities in Sofia launching projects for the underground network development/extension. The population of the Bulgarian capital reaches approximately 1.3 million citizens and, just like many European cities, will face the challenges imposed by the population increase. Therefore, as the urban rail transport has become a priority in the development of the public transport in Sofia, the underground network is also aimed at for the extension and modernisation. The extension of the underground system in Sofia has determined the increase of the public transport share, after the commissioning of the second underground line (in August), the number of passengers using the underground has increased by 40%, over 100 thousand persons renouncing to travel by their personal car in favour of the underground.
The increasing figures have determined authorities to initiate a new underground project, “by the end of the year we will initiate works to another line section that will make the connection to the airport”, announced the Mayor of the Bulgarian capital, Mrs. Yordanka Fandukova in October. Therefore, the operator of the underground network Metropoliten has launched the tender for the construction of a 2.7 underground line section, with works due in 2 years. The construction of the section will be co-funded with EUR 55 Million worth savings from other contracts financed by the Sectoral Operational Programme – Transport.
EU has announced its intent to offer funds amounting to EUR 110 Million for underground projects in the Bulgarian capital, the financing being directly offered by the company Metropoliten, without being firstly directed to the governmental authorities. The project consists in works to a 7.6 km-line that will provide the transport connection between the city centre, the international airport in Sofia and Business Park Sofia.3
Through the initiated projects, the authorities’ objective is to provide an efficient transport system that should be able to face future mobility requirements, trying to determine the quality of life increase by the optimisation of the performance of public transport services.
Share on:
