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07-02-2012, 11:45 AM
This paper is a public transport policy proposal for building a rapid rail system in the city of Skopje, Macedonia; replacing the proposed plan by the local government to build a tram system.
Analyses are made of the public transport improvement options emphasizing on the comparison of the rapid rail and the tram systems, were it is determined that the rapid rail is a more economically beneficial investment. A detailed plan for the proposed “Vardar rapid rail” system is analyzed with its future impact on city development, where it is concluded that it will promote prosperity and better quality of life for the city inhabitants
Skopje is the Capital and the largest city in the Republic of Macedonia and the
country’s political, cultural, academic and economic Centre. Officially, it has 506 926 inhabitants from the 2002 census but in 2011 it has an estimate of one million inhabitants including migrate workers, tourists and students. Skopje is located in the north part of Macedonia, with geographical coordinates 42°0ガN 21°26ガE, on a surface of 1818 km2 , 23 kilometers in length and 9 kilometers wide, sitting on 245 meters above sea level.
1.1.Transport and Infrastructure
Skopje has a widely developed road infrastructure which has been given an intensive impulse of improvement in the last decade.
The only public transport service in Skopje is the Bus transport run by ”JSP” Public Bus Service and several Private Bus companies. Other ways of transport is the widely available Taxi service companies.
1.1.1 Skopje Bus transport
The bus transport system has been the only means of public transport in Skopje for many years. It has a developed network of bus lines and bus stops and a vast fleet of buses, public and private bus companies. Recently the bus fleet of the Public Transport Service was refreshed with new busses and it is planned in several years the whole drive park to be changed with new buses.
1.2. Replacing the tram project with a rapid rail project
The Local government of Skopje has made plans on investing in the public transport in order to improve allocative efficiency. Funds have been planned to be invested in the sector where it was announced that a feasibility study has been done for building a tram system, details from the feasibility study to build the tram has not been published.
This Research paper will analyze the options for improving the public transport, and will prove that building a tram system in the city will not be the best choice of the existing options for its improvement. Reallocation of the planed funds should be done to a more efficient public policy, such as building a rapid rail system.
As a substitute for the tram, the “Vardar railway line” will be proposed, a low cost effective rapid rail that will improve public transport and promote city development.
Therefore, the analytical approach will be in the following order:
- Future development possibilities in the public transport sector
- Rapid rail versus Tram system analysis
- The “Vardar rapid railway line” proposal project
Skopje population grows constantly caused mainly by migration of population from rural to urban areas, and as such transport of people is becoming even more challenging. The current transport system is not efficient enough to satisfy the demands for transport of the inhabitants, and if the population grows, it will be even more inefficient. The road infrastructure improvement measure has been almost exhausted. And as for the current public transport there are no separate road lines for busses, and if the roads have more vehicles it will slowdown traffic thus making the buss transport even more inefficient. Transport will become time and cost consuming, where improvement of the public transport is of a high priority. Not just to prepare for the future challenges, but also to solve the current traffic problems which are causing a loss to the economy, and slowing down the economic development. The public debate on how to improve the public transport has divided the public opinion between the following options: building a tram system, building high speed rail, improving the infrastructure for alternative green transport and improving the road infrastructure.
The favorite for the local government is the tram system for witch a feasibility study has been conducted. A brief analysis will be done for all the options, emphasizing on the choices between the trams versus high speed rail, where argumentation of facts will conclude that the Rapid Rail is the currently best public policy.
Rapid rail
“Rapid rail”, “subway”, “elevated” (railway), or metropolitan railway (metro) is
An electric Railway with the capacity for a “heavy volume “of traffic and
characterized by exclusive rights-of-way, multi-car trains, high speed and rapid acceleration, sophisticated signaling and high platform loading.
Rapid urban rail is the most efficient technologically achieved way of public transport. It is fast in speed, it runs on exclusive rail tracks away from other vehicles traffic, above or underground. It is a green way of transport because it uses electricity as a power source. Building an underground subway is the most convenient way to improve public transport because it doesn’t occupy ground space needed for other structures, but it is a more expensive choice than the above ground railway. That is why in recent years above ground railway is the first choice for developing cities if there is space availability.
Skopje is located on an earthquake based soft ground with many underground water basins, where building an underground subway in such conditions can be done in a very complex design to achieve a stable and secured structure, which means higher cost of construction then in more optimal conditions. Skopje is to some extent limited on space to build elevated rail, but there are several areas that are vacant and suitable for it.
The basin of the river Vardar flow from west to east and cuts the city into almost two equal parts in the city length. One bank of the river is a recreational and sport area, but the other bank of the river still stay undeveloped and almost natural.
The Vardar River has 11 kilometers of flow into urban city areas making it a perfect location for building a rapid rail, which doesn’t have to be underground or elevated but a ground and low cost rail. This Main line of the rapid rail system in the city will work as a release valve or a main artery to reduce traffic congestion and improve intercity transport.
3. Vardar rapid rail line
The Vardar rail will pass closely near numerous important city object and locations.
Following the proposed plan, the important locations and rail stops are:
1. Novo Lisice: densely populated area in Skopje; bridge connection.
2. MZT: sport arena; planed bridge to be constructed.
3. Aerodrom: densely populated area; bridge connection.
4. Zeleznicka: Rail station; Skopje fair; bridge connection.
5. MRTV: Macedonian radio and television, Ministry of internal affairs passport, id and driving license department; Macedonian Academy of Sciences and Arts;
University St. Kiril and Metodius; Judicial courts; bridge connection.
6. Makedonska Opera I Balet: Macedonian opera and ballet; Criminal court; Hotel Holiday Inn; Trade Mall; bridge connection.
7. Stone bridge: Macedonia Square, Museum of the Macedonian struggle; Museum of the Holocaust; Macedonian Theater Hal; st.Dimitrija Church; bridge
Connection, Stone bridge, the structural land mark symbol of Skopje.
8. Kale: Macedonia government building; Kale citadel; Sport medicine hospital;
Macedonian Custom headquarters; Bridge Connection.
9. Filip Vtori: National Arena Philip the second; Amusement park; Skopje Zoo;
Skopje City Park; US embassy; Summer night clubs complex; bridge Connection.
10. Boris Trajkovski, sport Arena complex Boris Trajkovski, Hotel Alexander Palace, Swimming pool Karposh; bridge Connection.
11. Zlokukjani: Zlokukjani neighborhood; bridge Connection
12. Partiznaski odredi: densely populated area; Private Hospital “Neuromedica”; bridge Connection.
13. Zeleznicki Most: densely populated area; bridge Connection.
Illustration 1 Rail and bus travel impacts: this picture illustrates differences
between rail and bus transit travel impacts. Rail provides service to a limited number of stations. Those stations can stimulate more intense development, with increased population and employment density, higher per capita transit ridership and walking trips, and lower per capita vehicle ownership and trips. Bus transit can serve more destinations, including some dispersed, suburban activity centers, but attracts fewer riders per capita, and by itself has little or no effect on land use patterns. Both types of transit can attract more riders and become more effective if implemented with
supportive transport and land use policies.
3.3 Cost and benefits analysis for building the Vardar Rapid rail
3.3.1 Direct Benefits
Travel time savings for users of the Vardar railway; Vehicle operation and parking cost savings to travelers who change from auto to public transport; decreasing traffic congestion by lowering the personal transport vehicles participating in traffic, and parked cars; Macedonia is an oil import Country, decreasing the usage of oil based fuels will make saving for the country; improved access to jobs and amenities to public transport dependent travelers in the city; improving allocative efficiency, mobility and economical transportation of the population; traffic accident reductions and safer transportation because of decreased traffic congestion and lower auto users; reduced greenhouses, reduced environmental damage and promotion of a better living environment; reduced public transport operating costs due to the increased efficiencies and higher usage.
3.3.2 Indirect Benefits
Increased economic activity and/or agglomeration of businesses; benefits from property development due to the Vardar rail investment; Growth in employment in the Vardar rail service area; government benefits from increased taxes generated by the new development.
3.3.3 Costs
Capital costs of materials and equipment; cost of planning and design; Infrastructure construction costs; capital costs for new rail and rail carts; operation and maintenance costs.
3.4 Problems and Solutions
It can be argued that some of the locations where the rapid rail will pass are not so developed or densely populated areas. But then we can look at this issue, and ask the question, are these areas undeveloped because of undeveloped infrastructure? Where experiences showed that building a rapid rail line increased real-estate investment and land pricing of the affected regions.
From this it can be concluded that the construction of this line will not only connect important areas in the city, but also promote development in other less urbanized parts of the city.
The only rearrangement of the urban plan because of the proposed rail track is in the center of the city at the stone bridge. The bridge itself is not the problem, but the newly placed statues next to it will have to be relocated. And about all the bridges that the rail line will pass under, there is no question if they are high enough, the fact is they are, but even if they are not then it is very easy to dig in a meter lower at the location, making the track go a under without making any changes to the existing bridges.
3.5 Future phases of rapid rail development
As any city in the world the rapid rail construction, the network of railings grows in phases, simultaneously as the city grows and develops. Such in the case of Skopje rapid rail, the Vardar rail will be the First phase, lengthening and connected with other rail lines should be established. Implementing a broad and efficient network of rapid rail using preferably leveled or ground rail system that will connect the entire urban areas and suburbs will promote better efficiency and overall inhabitants’ usage of the public transport.
The government strategies to improve the Public transport service are positive and supported by the population, but academic researches should be made and considered very carefully before making any Grand investments in the public transport.
Likewise the planed Tram system is not the best option of development, where this paper proves that the proposed Vardar rapid rail project will be more beneficial to the urban and economic development of Skopje. It will provide a better efficient transport and it has a highly lower construction cost. The statements given in news press media from certain companies that previously had established cooperation of selling busses to the public transport service, claiming interest in selling trams and trolleybuses for the city development, seems overambitious in propagating the building of a tram system in Skopje. Logic is that private companies prefer profit in selling goods no matter if the goods are beneficial to the buyer. And as previously analyzed the trend and policy making is to build rapid rail not tram systems, where experience showed rapid rail is more beneficial. It will be a big mistake in city planning if a tram system is built in Skopje at the given moment, it will not improve the public transport as proved by the given facts but rather it will be a loss of time and resources. The 12.1~15.5 million Euros vardar rapid rail projects versus 160 million Euros for a tram railway project is a staggering difference. Mathematics is the most precise method of calculation, the references of the studies are there to recalculate and confirm. Simple logic will also confirm that it is less expensive to build a rail in a free obstacles area compared to building it in a urban developed area with massive reconstruction and special architectural modifications.
Taking into consideration the costs and economic development effects, where it was proven by this research paper that the Vardar rapid rail will be more beneficial. The conclusion is that the “Tram project”, should be replaced by the proposed “Vardar rapid rail project”
The whole thing: http://www.maticanaiselenici.com/images/spisanie/Vardarska%20brza%20pruga.pdf
Analyses are made of the public transport improvement options emphasizing on the comparison of the rapid rail and the tram systems, were it is determined that the rapid rail is a more economically beneficial investment. A detailed plan for the proposed “Vardar rapid rail” system is analyzed with its future impact on city development, where it is concluded that it will promote prosperity and better quality of life for the city inhabitants
Skopje is the Capital and the largest city in the Republic of Macedonia and the
country’s political, cultural, academic and economic Centre. Officially, it has 506 926 inhabitants from the 2002 census but in 2011 it has an estimate of one million inhabitants including migrate workers, tourists and students. Skopje is located in the north part of Macedonia, with geographical coordinates 42°0ガN 21°26ガE, on a surface of 1818 km2 , 23 kilometers in length and 9 kilometers wide, sitting on 245 meters above sea level.
1.1.Transport and Infrastructure
Skopje has a widely developed road infrastructure which has been given an intensive impulse of improvement in the last decade.
The only public transport service in Skopje is the Bus transport run by ”JSP” Public Bus Service and several Private Bus companies. Other ways of transport is the widely available Taxi service companies.
1.1.1 Skopje Bus transport
The bus transport system has been the only means of public transport in Skopje for many years. It has a developed network of bus lines and bus stops and a vast fleet of buses, public and private bus companies. Recently the bus fleet of the Public Transport Service was refreshed with new busses and it is planned in several years the whole drive park to be changed with new buses.
1.2. Replacing the tram project with a rapid rail project
The Local government of Skopje has made plans on investing in the public transport in order to improve allocative efficiency. Funds have been planned to be invested in the sector where it was announced that a feasibility study has been done for building a tram system, details from the feasibility study to build the tram has not been published.
This Research paper will analyze the options for improving the public transport, and will prove that building a tram system in the city will not be the best choice of the existing options for its improvement. Reallocation of the planed funds should be done to a more efficient public policy, such as building a rapid rail system.
As a substitute for the tram, the “Vardar railway line” will be proposed, a low cost effective rapid rail that will improve public transport and promote city development.
Therefore, the analytical approach will be in the following order:
- Future development possibilities in the public transport sector
- Rapid rail versus Tram system analysis
- The “Vardar rapid railway line” proposal project
Skopje population grows constantly caused mainly by migration of population from rural to urban areas, and as such transport of people is becoming even more challenging. The current transport system is not efficient enough to satisfy the demands for transport of the inhabitants, and if the population grows, it will be even more inefficient. The road infrastructure improvement measure has been almost exhausted. And as for the current public transport there are no separate road lines for busses, and if the roads have more vehicles it will slowdown traffic thus making the buss transport even more inefficient. Transport will become time and cost consuming, where improvement of the public transport is of a high priority. Not just to prepare for the future challenges, but also to solve the current traffic problems which are causing a loss to the economy, and slowing down the economic development. The public debate on how to improve the public transport has divided the public opinion between the following options: building a tram system, building high speed rail, improving the infrastructure for alternative green transport and improving the road infrastructure.
The favorite for the local government is the tram system for witch a feasibility study has been conducted. A brief analysis will be done for all the options, emphasizing on the choices between the trams versus high speed rail, where argumentation of facts will conclude that the Rapid Rail is the currently best public policy.
Rapid rail
“Rapid rail”, “subway”, “elevated” (railway), or metropolitan railway (metro) is
An electric Railway with the capacity for a “heavy volume “of traffic and
characterized by exclusive rights-of-way, multi-car trains, high speed and rapid acceleration, sophisticated signaling and high platform loading.
Rapid urban rail is the most efficient technologically achieved way of public transport. It is fast in speed, it runs on exclusive rail tracks away from other vehicles traffic, above or underground. It is a green way of transport because it uses electricity as a power source. Building an underground subway is the most convenient way to improve public transport because it doesn’t occupy ground space needed for other structures, but it is a more expensive choice than the above ground railway. That is why in recent years above ground railway is the first choice for developing cities if there is space availability.
Skopje is located on an earthquake based soft ground with many underground water basins, where building an underground subway in such conditions can be done in a very complex design to achieve a stable and secured structure, which means higher cost of construction then in more optimal conditions. Skopje is to some extent limited on space to build elevated rail, but there are several areas that are vacant and suitable for it.
The basin of the river Vardar flow from west to east and cuts the city into almost two equal parts in the city length. One bank of the river is a recreational and sport area, but the other bank of the river still stay undeveloped and almost natural.
The Vardar River has 11 kilometers of flow into urban city areas making it a perfect location for building a rapid rail, which doesn’t have to be underground or elevated but a ground and low cost rail. This Main line of the rapid rail system in the city will work as a release valve or a main artery to reduce traffic congestion and improve intercity transport.
3. Vardar rapid rail line
The Vardar rail will pass closely near numerous important city object and locations.
Following the proposed plan, the important locations and rail stops are:
1. Novo Lisice: densely populated area in Skopje; bridge connection.
2. MZT: sport arena; planed bridge to be constructed.
3. Aerodrom: densely populated area; bridge connection.
4. Zeleznicka: Rail station; Skopje fair; bridge connection.
5. MRTV: Macedonian radio and television, Ministry of internal affairs passport, id and driving license department; Macedonian Academy of Sciences and Arts;
University St. Kiril and Metodius; Judicial courts; bridge connection.
6. Makedonska Opera I Balet: Macedonian opera and ballet; Criminal court; Hotel Holiday Inn; Trade Mall; bridge connection.
7. Stone bridge: Macedonia Square, Museum of the Macedonian struggle; Museum of the Holocaust; Macedonian Theater Hal; st.Dimitrija Church; bridge
Connection, Stone bridge, the structural land mark symbol of Skopje.
8. Kale: Macedonia government building; Kale citadel; Sport medicine hospital;
Macedonian Custom headquarters; Bridge Connection.
9. Filip Vtori: National Arena Philip the second; Amusement park; Skopje Zoo;
Skopje City Park; US embassy; Summer night clubs complex; bridge Connection.
10. Boris Trajkovski, sport Arena complex Boris Trajkovski, Hotel Alexander Palace, Swimming pool Karposh; bridge Connection.
11. Zlokukjani: Zlokukjani neighborhood; bridge Connection
12. Partiznaski odredi: densely populated area; Private Hospital “Neuromedica”; bridge Connection.
13. Zeleznicki Most: densely populated area; bridge Connection.
Illustration 1 Rail and bus travel impacts: this picture illustrates differences
between rail and bus transit travel impacts. Rail provides service to a limited number of stations. Those stations can stimulate more intense development, with increased population and employment density, higher per capita transit ridership and walking trips, and lower per capita vehicle ownership and trips. Bus transit can serve more destinations, including some dispersed, suburban activity centers, but attracts fewer riders per capita, and by itself has little or no effect on land use patterns. Both types of transit can attract more riders and become more effective if implemented with
supportive transport and land use policies.
3.3 Cost and benefits analysis for building the Vardar Rapid rail
3.3.1 Direct Benefits
Travel time savings for users of the Vardar railway; Vehicle operation and parking cost savings to travelers who change from auto to public transport; decreasing traffic congestion by lowering the personal transport vehicles participating in traffic, and parked cars; Macedonia is an oil import Country, decreasing the usage of oil based fuels will make saving for the country; improved access to jobs and amenities to public transport dependent travelers in the city; improving allocative efficiency, mobility and economical transportation of the population; traffic accident reductions and safer transportation because of decreased traffic congestion and lower auto users; reduced greenhouses, reduced environmental damage and promotion of a better living environment; reduced public transport operating costs due to the increased efficiencies and higher usage.
3.3.2 Indirect Benefits
Increased economic activity and/or agglomeration of businesses; benefits from property development due to the Vardar rail investment; Growth in employment in the Vardar rail service area; government benefits from increased taxes generated by the new development.
3.3.3 Costs
Capital costs of materials and equipment; cost of planning and design; Infrastructure construction costs; capital costs for new rail and rail carts; operation and maintenance costs.
3.4 Problems and Solutions
It can be argued that some of the locations where the rapid rail will pass are not so developed or densely populated areas. But then we can look at this issue, and ask the question, are these areas undeveloped because of undeveloped infrastructure? Where experiences showed that building a rapid rail line increased real-estate investment and land pricing of the affected regions.
From this it can be concluded that the construction of this line will not only connect important areas in the city, but also promote development in other less urbanized parts of the city.
The only rearrangement of the urban plan because of the proposed rail track is in the center of the city at the stone bridge. The bridge itself is not the problem, but the newly placed statues next to it will have to be relocated. And about all the bridges that the rail line will pass under, there is no question if they are high enough, the fact is they are, but even if they are not then it is very easy to dig in a meter lower at the location, making the track go a under without making any changes to the existing bridges.
3.5 Future phases of rapid rail development
As any city in the world the rapid rail construction, the network of railings grows in phases, simultaneously as the city grows and develops. Such in the case of Skopje rapid rail, the Vardar rail will be the First phase, lengthening and connected with other rail lines should be established. Implementing a broad and efficient network of rapid rail using preferably leveled or ground rail system that will connect the entire urban areas and suburbs will promote better efficiency and overall inhabitants’ usage of the public transport.
The government strategies to improve the Public transport service are positive and supported by the population, but academic researches should be made and considered very carefully before making any Grand investments in the public transport.
Likewise the planed Tram system is not the best option of development, where this paper proves that the proposed Vardar rapid rail project will be more beneficial to the urban and economic development of Skopje. It will provide a better efficient transport and it has a highly lower construction cost. The statements given in news press media from certain companies that previously had established cooperation of selling busses to the public transport service, claiming interest in selling trams and trolleybuses for the city development, seems overambitious in propagating the building of a tram system in Skopje. Logic is that private companies prefer profit in selling goods no matter if the goods are beneficial to the buyer. And as previously analyzed the trend and policy making is to build rapid rail not tram systems, where experience showed rapid rail is more beneficial. It will be a big mistake in city planning if a tram system is built in Skopje at the given moment, it will not improve the public transport as proved by the given facts but rather it will be a loss of time and resources. The 12.1~15.5 million Euros vardar rapid rail projects versus 160 million Euros for a tram railway project is a staggering difference. Mathematics is the most precise method of calculation, the references of the studies are there to recalculate and confirm. Simple logic will also confirm that it is less expensive to build a rail in a free obstacles area compared to building it in a urban developed area with massive reconstruction and special architectural modifications.
Taking into consideration the costs and economic development effects, where it was proven by this research paper that the Vardar rapid rail will be more beneficial. The conclusion is that the “Tram project”, should be replaced by the proposed “Vardar rapid rail project”
The whole thing: http://www.maticanaiselenici.com/images/spisanie/Vardarska%20brza%20pruga.pdf