transport infrastructure - Host City

Russia’s road to smarter transport

Moscow suffers from the longest traffic jams in the world

Russia, with a population of just over 140 million, spans continents. Its sheer scale, coupled with some harsh weather conditions and very large cities, provides plenty of challenges for transportation.

As Igor Levitin, Russian Minister of Transport put it, “Due to the geographical peculiarities of the Russian Federation and those of the territorial location of its production forces, transport has always been considered in Russia as a key economic sector providing for the country’s economic and political integrity.

“In some major cities such as Moscow, Saint Petersburg and Nizhny Novgorod, which are in a critical situation with regard to road congestion, a range of measures is underway aimed at increasing the capacity of the cities’ road network, limiting the use of personal vehicles and motivating the population to use public passenger transport.”

According to Vladimir Kryuchkov, CEO of ITS Russia, “The understanding is growing gradually that the limited access of personal and cargo vehicles to central parts of the cities and more tough parking policy are inevitable.”

In Moscow, the average traffic jam lasts 2.5 hours – the longest in the world. With 2.6 million cars in the city on a daily basis, a lack of parking space is also on the list of problems.

Speaking to the ITS Moscow conference in 2013, the city’s deputy head of transport, Tatiana Malashenkova announced plans to reduce the length of average journey times in the city to 50 minutes. This is to be achieved by reducing car journeys by 30 per cent and increasing public transport journeys by 40 per cent.

Malashenkova also highlighted the introduction of two park and ride schemes: one on the approach to the outer ring road for 80,000 cars and one between the outer ring road and the third ring road for 30,000 cars.

 

Global positioning

NIS, a Russian public-private company, has been tasked with developing and deploying a ERA-GLONASS GPS system throughout the Russia, which involves fitting GLONASS satellite navigation communication devices, or terminals, into all new vehicles sold in the country.

In the event of an accident, the terminal is automatically activated and transmits the vehicle location and other key information to an emergency response centre, allowing the swift intervention of the emergency services.

The ERA-GLONASS system will help to reduce the number of fatalities and injuries on Russia's roads and boost the safety of both freight and passenger transport. In addition, NIS plans to develop commercial applications for GLONASS and create a mainstream market for navigation services and devices.

The communication carrier for the ERA-GLONASS system is 3G. This requires additional infrastructure to be provided to ensure that there is sufficient coverage, not only in cities but also across the Russian strategic road network. This will open up the possibility for additional ITS devices to be utilised in Russia.

Commercial vehicles are also being targeted for ITS deployment. A nationwide tolling system is in development for vehicles weighing more than 12 tonnes, again using the GLONASS GPS system.

In November 2013, NIS and Kapsch TrafficCom were among four companies that tendered for the project, which is being administered by the federal road agency, Rosavtodor and is scheduled to run for 13 years.

 

Russia and Europe

ERTICO and ITS Russia are working together to research, develop and deploy ITS technologies. A number of areas for cooperation have been highlighted, including a pilot of the “eCall” system, which enables crashed cars to call emergency services automatically.

Another area for cooperation is ITS for large events, particularly in the context of the FIFA World Cup in Russia in 2018. Another target is to improve traffic and traveller information for transport corridors, especially the Helsinki to St Petersburg corridor.

The “Smart Transport Corridor: Helsinki – St. Petersburg” project aims to create a continuous and interoperable intelligent transport service between Finland and Russia, while increasing the interoperability of services between the EU and Russia.

The aim is to improve commuter services, boost traffic safety and make traffic flow more smoothly, especially at the border. The project also aims to increase cooperation between Finnish and Russian private and public sector operators and facilitate the growth of business in the intelligent transport area.

Five pilot services are scheduled to get underway in 2014: a weather and road condition service; a traffic incident information service; traveller services in real-time; a public transport information service on the Allegro train; and automatic emergency calling using eCall/ERA Glonass.

 

These services are being implemented by a consortium founded by private companies and will be demonstrated in Helsinki at the ITS Europe Congress 2014.

How the Games set London on track

London Underground

Hosting a major sports event inevitably places huge additional strain on a city’s transport network. While this can act as a catalyst to upgrade systems, the long term value of any such investment is always subject to scrutiny. Transport is a major component of the organising city’s capital budget and rightly the focus is on the post-event deliverables.

In the case of London 2012, the transport investment came in at just above USD 10bn. And despite that hefty price tag, Transport for London (TfL) considers this investment to be the main legacy of the Games. Perhaps the most palpable effects are the upgraded Jubilee Line, Docklands Light Rail and Overground, with their extended services and increased capacity.

However, a report published in February 2013 by the Greater London Authority’s Transport Committee in expressed frustration that infrastructure developed for the Games being underutilised – in particular, Stratford International Station.

“We want all new transport infrastructure installed for the 2012 Games fully utilised including Stratford International Station. To date, there is little indication that Eurostar or any other international rail operator will use this station in future. Alongside improved use of Stratford International, we want to see long-term changes in rail timetabling,” the GLA report stated.

Other, less high-profile, legacy transport benefits include the increase in step-free access, additional audio and visual information displays, hearing aid induction loops, wide-aisle gates, tactile paving and additional help points. All delivered for the Games, these are now providing both Londoners and visitors alike a more accessible transport system for the city.

Aside from investments in infrastructure, hosting the Games brought many lessons about transport management that will be of value to London and other host cities in the future.

Politicians and commentators have praised London’s transport management during the Games. Hugh Sumner, Director of Transport for the ODA, put the success down to an integrated approach to transport delivery. He said: “By anyone’s measure we delivered”.

Road and rail operators managed the transport system in realtime during the 2012 Games. They kept travellers informed on a daily basis about the best ways to make journeys to help spread demand more evenly.

Train operating companies operated more flexible timetables on certain routes so they could alter services at short notice to better suit demand. TfL and Network Rail deployed new measures to respond more quickly to any incidents of disruption. This helped to minimise the impact of any service failures including at key 2012 travel hotspots such as London Bridge.

On the roads, following lower demand from Games family vehicles than predicted, TfL reduced the extent and hours of operation of the Olympic Route Network (ORN).

“We want ‘One Team Transport’ to continue,” a spokesman for TfL says. “Transport operators have told us this will happen. They suggest the Transport Co-ordination Centre (TCC) and travel ambassadors could be used for future special events or during periods of disruptions.

According to TfL, public transport and road networks now operate much more smoothly and efficiently as a result of plans and procedures put in place before the Games. The 2012 active traffic management programme, which resulted in changes to 1,300 traffic signals, was a major driver behind this change.

However, some issues have been raised about the active traffic management programme. Lobbying group London Councils suggests the implementation was heavy-handed, resulting in significant delays and congestion in some parts of outer London. In addition, London Councils says, TfL failed to consult boroughs before making changes to traffic signals.

Keep on trucking
The increased level of freight during the Games was handled by the 2012 freight management programme. At a cost of USD 6m, this established a freight forum, a dedicated freight website and an online freight journey planner. A spokesperson for TfL said “Around 57 per cent of freight operators made adaptations during the 2012 Games, with most reducing their transport activity and retiming deliveries.”

The freight transport association supports the continuation of these measures and suggests its members could make permanent changes to their usual delivery hours following the 2012 Games. TfL is also keen for the improvements brought by the programme to continue; the spokesperson said “We want long-term changes in the scale and timing of road freight deliveries”.

One notable operational success during London 2012 was the use of travel ambassadors. Resplendent in their purple uniforms, these volunteers were located at all the major transport hubs, guiding and advising visitors. Such was the positive feedback on their use that London Underground continued their use through the busy festive period four months after the conclusion of the games.

The volunteers, who have been celebrated along with the Olympic Games Makers since the Games, were on hand to provide travel information at some of the capital’s busiest Tube stations.

“Our travel ambassadors were heralded as a fantastic success during the Games for the warm welcome they gave to visitors from across the globe and their breadth of knowledge about London’s transport system,” says Nigel Holness, director of operational change and upgrades at London Underground.

“Our front-line staff work really hard to ensure that customers are given all the information they need to make their journeys quickly and easily, but having some extra help from the travel ambassadors during the busy festive period gave visitors an even better level of service and demonstrates our commitment to providing excellent customer care.”

Another lesson that was taken to heart from the build-up to and during the Games was that preparation and effective communications can often forestall any travel complications, allowing effective alternatives to be provided. The lessons learned from the Get Ahead of the Games campaign, when it comes to travel demand management and communications, will be implemented in TfL’s future communication strategies.

There are also plans to build on the extensive use of social media platforms that proved so effective. Behavioural changes like this may well prove to have a wider reaching impact than the investments in infrastructure needed to host the Games

Moving the Games

railway tracks in front of stadium

Between July and September last year, the Olympic and Paralympic Games brought competitions in 26 sports across 34 venues and 10,500 athletes from 204 countries to London. A total workforce of around 200,000 people, including more than 6,000 staff, 70,000 volunteers and 100,000 contractors, were involved in the Games.

Effective transport had long been recognised as an essential factor for a successful London 2012 Games. Before the Games began, some critics argued that London’s transport system was already strained and would not cope with the extra demands associated with hosting the Olympic and Paralympic Games.

However, as a result of a comprehensive programme of transport upgrades and detailed planning in advance of the Games, excellent operational performance during the Games, and changes in travel behaviour by regular travellers, transport performed very well and made a vital contribution to the success of the Games.

Faster, higher, stronger
Almost GBP 6.5 billion was invested in transport improvements around the Olympic Park and across London, all delivered well before the Games began. The upgrades were well needed: London 2012 saw record attendance at events.

During the Olympic Games, there were 7.4 million ticketed spectators (6.25 million in London), including 2.8 million spectators at Olympic Park venues alone. The Paralympic Games sold out for the first time in their history, with 2.7 million ticket sales, including 100,000 non-event tickets. Record numbers of spectators also viewed the road events across London and the South East, with a total of 1.8 million estimated to have attended.

During London 2012 London’s public transport delivered 62 million journeys on London Underground – up 35 per cent on normal levels. Tuesday, 7 August was the busiest day in the Tube’s history, with 4.57 million passengers, while Sunday 5 August saw 78 per cent more passengers than a normal Sunday in 2011. There was a 27 per cent reduction in the impact of service disruption during the Olympic Games, measured in terms of lost customer hours.

The Docklands Light Railway (DLR) saw almost 6.9 million journeys over the Olympic Games – up by over 100 per cent on normal levels. Over 500,000 journeys on a single day were made for the first time on Friday 3 August. During both the Olympic and Paralympic Games, reliability on the DLR was 99 per cent.

London Overground saw around 6.4 million journeys during the Olympic Games – up 26 per cent on normal 2012 levels and up 54 per cent on 2011 levels. Reliability on the London Overground was 98 per cent.

London Buses carried 92 million passenger trips across the 17 days of the Olympic Games, running 23.2 million km during the Olympic Games, 98 per cent of schedule.

Traffic flows in central and inner London were down by 16.3 per cent in the AM peak and 9.4 per cent in the PM peak on normal levels during the Olympic Games. Serious and severe disruption was also down by 20 per cent during the Games.

VIPs go public
One of the areas that caused the most concern before the Games was the Olympic Route Network (ORN) and the proposed ‘VIP’ lanes or ‘Games lanes’ for athletes and officials. These Games lanes were in effect temporary priority routes to enable athletes and officials to get to the Games swiftly. They were only implemented when and where required and were strictly enforced.

But because officials and athletes used public transport much more than expected, the flow of Olympic family vehicles were typically 30-40 per cent below LOCOG’s pre-Games predictions. As a result, TfL was able to actively manage the ORN using roadside variable-messaging signs, with around 60 per cent of Games lanes remaining open to general traffic during the Olympic Games and around 70 per cent during the Paralympic Games.

People power
The transportation system was not all about vehicular movements. TfL provided a network of new cycling and walking routes, especially in East London; 15,000 free cycle parking spaces at competition venues; a further 1,500 free cycle parking spaces in central London for commuters; and free cycle maintenance at venues for spectators.

At sites across London, the number of pedestrians counted was 7 per cent higher during the Olympic Games and 18 per cent higher during the Paralympic Games, compared with the same period in 2011. Measurements on bridges over the Thames during the Olympic Games indicated 20 per cent more cyclists and 22 per cent more people on foot, compared with the previous fortnight.

In central London the figures showed 29 per cent more cyclists, and in east London 62 per cent more cyclists and 158 per cent more pedestrians, indicating large increases in the areas most affected by the Games. Barclays Cycle Hire had 642,000 hires over the Olympic Games – 44 per cent more than the first two weeks of July – and a further 442,000 hires over the Paralympic Games. Over the whole of July, Barclays Cycle Hire saw more than 1 million hires for the first time, while the highest ever daily total of 47,000 hires was achieved on 26 July.

Modernising Brazil’s transport infrastructure

Brazil train station

As the fifth biggest country in the world by both area and population, transport is a huge issue for Brazil. Developments in transport infrastructure have lagged behind the recent acceleration of the country’s economy, but the government is now investing heavily in building networks that will enable economic growth to continue unhindered.

“Brazil, due to its continental dimensions with its 8.5m sq km in area, needs to integrate its several regions and therefore afford mobility to its population,” says César Borges, Brazil’s Minister of Transport. “This is why we are gathering together public and private resources in partnerships to make sure that we allow better logistics throughout our different transportation modalities, including roads, railways, and waterways, in order to meet the demand that we have and to reduce logistics complexities and costs, and therefore add competiveness to our industries.”

In the air
The World Cup in 2014 will feature 12 host cities that straddle this vast expanse of land. Due to the large distances between host cities, large numbers of fans will have to travel by air between games. This is where Brazil faces some of its biggest challenges.

“We are increasing the number of flights available. We are reinforcing the capacity of Brazilian airlines to offer more seats during the World Cup. And we are ensuring that airports are ready to meet this increased demand during the Games, particularly those in the host cities, to receive passengers quickly to allow for expedited check-in and check-out for all passengers,” says Borges.

Brazil is in the process of renovating its airports. “There are currently five airports under concession being modernized, including the Galeão Airport in Rio, which I expect to be completed or near completion by 2016.”

All the other airports are being renovated, expanded, managed, or improved by Infraero, the Brazilian Airport Infrastructure Company, instead of being awarded under concession. “Infraero will open its capital to attract operators from all over the world that can come and bring expertise to Infraero, improving the operation of the airports that Infraero currently works on – either recovering, expanding, or managing their operations.”

On the road 
Journeys between some of the host cities will be possible by road. It is only 184 miles from Natal to Recife, for instance. From Rio de Janeiro, it is 266 miles to São Paulo and 269 miles to Belo Horizonte.

“Brazil already has a very extensive highway network with more than 55,000 km of paved highways in extension. These roads, under the federal government’s responsibility, are in a very good state,” says Borges.

Duplication – the creation of dual carriageways – is an important area of development. “We have recently awarded about 5,520 km of highway under concession schemes and approximately 5,000 km of highway have already been duplicated. Therefore, mobility through Brazilian highways has its safety and expediency guaranteed during the World Cup.

“There are 2,500 km of road duplications planned for the near future and we also need new roads in new areas of the country, particularly in the Midwest and the North. We are identifying new highway passages or highway stretches that are attractive for investment, both due to their vehicle movement, to the cargo movement, or to the passenger movement.”

Railroad revolution
Today, rail transport in Brazil is virtually non-existent, with just a few routes available. This is all about to change. “We want to have a new, a completely new railroad network for the country that is 11,000 km long, which unless I’m mistaken is something unforeseen in the world,” says Borges.

The Superior Court of Audits (TCU) is currently evaluating contracts for two major stretches of railway. One is for the Açailândia-Barcarena passage, which would complete a major route called the North-South Railroad. “It will connect the port of Rio Grande in the very deep south of Brazil to the city of Barcarena in the mouth of the Amazon River up in the north – approximately 7,000 km of railroad – which will become a very large spinal cord of a railroad system.”

The North-South Railroad will intersect with an East-West Railroad. This network will be open access, which means that several operators will be able to use it. “The federal government has taken measures to show that the open access model is the one that will best serve this new infrastructure being built with these largegauge railroads, which will run at 80 km per hour and are very efficient.”

The primary motivation for the rail network is to enable the transport of materials and commodities. Passenger services are not planned on these routes. 

High speed rail delays
A high speed rail (HSR) link between Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo was originally planned to be operational in time for the 2014 World Cup. However, the tendering process has not gone according to plan and the line is unlikely to be in service before even the Olympic Games in 2016.

“We need to build a model that attracts the most bidders possible who want to invest in the sector,” says Borges. “The model we considered this year and proposed for market evaluation only attracted one company, Alstom. And since this one company was under queries or investigations by the Government of Sao Paulo, the federal government decided to refine the model to make sure that it was more attractive to more bidders.

“The obstacles here for attraction of companies particularly include demonstrating that we have cargo movement and passenger movement demands that are sufficient for a high-speed rail system. We need to demonstrate that we have very high levels of cargo in Campinas, Sao Paulo, and Rio de Janeiro, which are the main city centres or urban centres to be served by the high-speed rail system. These centres have very strong passenger flows and it is certain that only a high-speed rail can prevent the need for building of new airports and new roads to serve these city areas in the future.

“This is why the Ministry of Transports is working hard to implement a high-speed rail system. And we expect by the end of 2014, after the elections, or by 2015, to begin having our HSR or high-speed rail auctions.

“We need the high-speed rail model and the federal government believes in implementing the high-speed rail model. It is of course complex and subject to debate, but it is a model that pays for itself due to the passenger demand that it creates. And I am sure that we can implement it. It is a necessary stage in the country’s development path, which we will pursue staunchly."

Rio 2016
Host City asked Borges about whether the success of London 2012 is influencing Rio de Janeiro’s plans for transport networks during the Olympic Games. “As a Minister working closely with the federal government, I can say that I believe Brazil is doing everything to make sure that we make good use of all successful experiences from all Olympic Games organizers throughout the world, including London, which had a very well organized and successful Olympics, to help organize ours,” he said.

“We have some structural issues, but the city of Rio de Janeiro and the federal government have been working together to ensure that all sectors involved can be correctly contemplated in the organization of the Olympics, and transportation is certainly one of the sectors that deserves the most attention amongst those.”

“Rio is also doing renovation work to its urban mobility network in general, and to its road network, to allow all of those visiting the Olympic Games to be able to move to and fro appropriately and adequately.”

Public finance, overseas capital
Brazil’s transport plans are being realised through a combination of public and private finance. With road and rail plans are all scheduled to be executed within five years, a period of intense investment is underway.

“The Ministry of Transports is investing about 15 billion reais per year, and that number is growing through the growth exploration programme, or the PAC, as it is called in Portuguese.”

This programme started in 2007. “Since then, very strong investments have been made in the area and in budget terms, they were decoupled from government expenses – which means that these investments do not influence the country’s primary surplus. We were able to spend and are able to spend on our infrastructure without affecting other areas of the government.”

The participation of global businesses will be crucial in delivering these projects. “We would like to have participation from international capital in this process. We want to have companies come in who want to join the country and be partners of the federal government, and of the private initiative, including through joint ventures and special representatives. We are planning investments of above 250 billion reais and we want the international private sector as well – logistics operators, large construction companies, and others to come and work here.

“We already have two Spanish companies in the railroad sector and would like to have more companies work on the road and railroad sectors with Brazil. We already have Chinese companies interested in coming. We have already received authorities from the UK, from the US and from other countries who are interested in investing in these sectors and we are more than open to receive them as partners.

“We want to make sure that what matters most is that Brazilian logistics can overcome this large period we have had in the past, during which our infrastructure system was neglected and stayed in the last century. We want to bring true 21st century logistics infrastructure to Brazil.”