Marjana Petrović

Model of connecting an airport by rail - case study: the city of Zagreb

Zagreb Airport is at some 15km distance from the City of Zagreb itself. It is connected with the City by road which is congested during the morning and afternoon peak hours of commuting transport thus significantly affecting the travel time to and from the airport. The airport development plan for the next twenty years includes the construction of another runway and a new passenger terminal of higher capacity for passenger handling and of adequate level of equipment. Regarding the planned increase in traffic at Zagreb Airport it is necessary to expand the infrastructure capacities that connect the centre of Zagreb and Zagreb Airport, since already the existing capacities are not sufficient. The current connection of the airport with the city is exclusively by road, more precisely, the main road that connects the city of Velika Gorica with Zagreb, and which is one of the busiest roads in the Republic of Croatia, and already as such cannot meet Zagreb Airport requirements. Since the railway line that connects the cities of Zagreb and Velika Gorica passes in the vicinity of the airport, the plan is to connect Zagreb Airport to the existing railway infrastructure and to construct an underground stop under the passenger terminal. This paper does not focus on the infrastructural solutions but rather on the operator model, i.e. rail carrier that would provide adequate transport of passengers on the Zagreb-Airport-Velika Gorica relation. The paper will analyze the current state regarding the number of passengers and the methods of arriving i.e. leaving the airport. Regarding the expected number of passengers in the future and the construction of an underground railway stop, a railway carrier model will be provided. The model will encompass the dimensions of the mobile capacities, i.e. transport means, the rail carrier trip frequency (headways), and the introduction of integrated transport document for the purpose of more comfortable travelling.

Small Urban Area Transportation Planning

This paper will discuss how transportation planning and modeling of future demands is a challenging process for all transportation engineers. Collecting current network and travel demand data is elementary, but motorization level and population growth, as well as physical and regional planning cannot be omitted. The paper describes the process of transportation planning for small urban areas respecting the town specific characteristics and regional growth trends. After data collection and modeling of the current situation, forecast procedures have been developed and future network solutions proposed.

The Role of Railway Stations in Increasing Transport Demand

The monopoly of the railway companies and rigid railway regulations and carrier tariffs at the majority of the European railways have significantly affected the drastic reduction in the share of railway traffic in the surface transport of the entire Europe. Many years of stagnation and absence of investments into railway transport, particularly regarding railway stations as well as other useful surfaces along the railway lines of a similar or same function, have led to neglect and uselessness of these facilities in the railway system. High maintenance prices affect additional neglect, even destruction of railway stations and other buildings on the railway grounds, and construction of functional roofed platforms for passenger handling. Regardless of the fact that in their past, the construction of railway lines was the stimulator of the development of various regions and towns, today railway stations have become non-attractive places where people stay just for a short time and only in transit, which is much the case in the Republic of Croatia, but it should be pointed out that even the developed countries have similar problems. The approaching and opening of railway companies to the passengers, as well as the local government, is the priority for a serious market competition with the competitive road transport. In order to achieve this a cross-section of the current condition of the basic function of railway companies in the transport of passengers should be made. The introduction and development of integrated transport of passengers is the next step in the creation of competitive supply of the railway companies. The separation of railway carriers from railway infrastructure means also recognition of the important role of infrastructure manager in transforming the railway stations from the neglected and unattractive places to places with multifunctional facilities. In the first step it is necessary to make a cross-section of the current additional facilities at railway stations, and then to design and supply new facilities motivating the existing passengers to stay longer at the station, and also attracting new users towards stations, i.e. passenger trains. In the future, apart from the traffic function, the railway stations, as gates to the cities, need to take over also a part of the economic, commercial, cultural, sport and other social functions of the city.