MASTER OF SCIENCE THESIS STOCKHOLM, SWEDEN 2016 Operation of the Expanded Blue Metro Line in Stockholm SOUMELA PEFTITSI KTH ROYAL INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY SCHOOL OF ARCHITECTURE AND THE BUILT ENVIRONMENT TSC-MT 16-009 Operation of the Expanded Blue Metro Line in Stockholm Soumela Peftitsi Master thesis June 2016 Department of Transport Science KTH Railway Group KTH Royal Institute of Technology Abstract Since the population growth of Stockholm Region is rapid, leading to larger demand on Public Transport and especially metro, four Municipalities of the Region have agreed on the expansion of the metro network. Blue metro line will be extended to Nacka and Hags¨atrain the south and Barkarby in the north of the Swedish capital. The new railway line connections have been already planned, while the operation of the expanded line is analyzed in the current thesis. Taking the expected increase of passenger volumes and the operation of the current Blue line into account and following the safety restrictions, two alternative regu- lar timetables of the expanded Blue line, limited to the morning rush service on a working weekday, have been constructed. The operation at stations of low expected passenger volume on the train is evaluated concerning the satisfaction of the oper- ator. The first alternative metro operation with traffic every 4 minutes during the rush hour is concluded to be less efficient than the second alternative with 5 minutes headway, as 21 % larger amount of rolling stock is needed and more seats are not occupied. Finally, in order to achieve higher operational efficiency at the low-demanded sta- tions, a third Blue line operation, that is based on the second alternative and it includes short services, operating on a part of the line and not on the full-length of it, has been proposed. Although the number of trains needed for the morning peak hour operation remains constant between the second and third alternative op- erations, the proportion of empty seats at the analyzed stations is expected to be lower during the last alternative operation, resulting in a metro line scheduling that satisfies the operator most. Key words: Train scheduling, Metro operation, Operational efficiency, Urban rail, Train timetable, Stockholm metro, Blue metro line i ii Sammanfattning Den snabba befolkningstillv¨axteni Stockholmsregionen leder till ¨okad efterfr˚agan i kollektivtrafiken och s¨arskilttunnelbana. D¨arf¨orhar fyra kommuner i regionen enats om utbyggnaden av stadsn¨atet. Bl˚aatunnelbanelinjen kommer att utvidgas till Nacka och Hags¨atrai s¨oderoch Barkarby i norra delen av den svenska huvud- staden. Den nya tunnelbaneslinjen anslutningar har redan planerats. I den aktuella avhandlingen analyseras driften av den ut¨okade linjen . Med h¨ansyntill den f¨orv¨antade ¨okningenav efterfr˚aganhar tv˚aalternativa tidta- beller tagits fram f¨orden ut¨okade Bl˚aalinjen. Tidtabellerna baseras p˚adagens tidtabell med h¨ansyntill s¨akerhetsaspekter och begr¨ansastill morgonrusningen p˚a en vanlig vardag. F¨orstationer med l˚agf¨orv¨antad resandevolym har operat¨orens nytta utv¨arderats.F¨orstaalternativet som avser 4-minuters trafik under rusningen har visats vara mindre effektiv ¨andet andra d¨art˚ageng˚armed 5 minuters headway eftersom 21 % mer fordonskapacitet beh¨ovs medans fler stolar f¨orbliroanv¨anda. Slutligen har ett tredje alternativ f¨orslagitsf¨oratt uppn˚ah¨ogreoperativ effektivitet p˚astationer med l˚agefterfr˚aga.Alternativet bygger p˚aalternativ tv˚amen omfattar korta avg˚angarsom endast g˚arp˚aen del av linjen. Aven¨ om antalet t˚agsom beh¨ovs f¨ormorgonrusningen inte kan reduceras med denna ˚atg¨ardf¨orv¨antas antalet tomma platser p˚ade analyserade stationerna minskas, vilket g¨ortredje alternativet mest effektiv f¨oroperat¨oren. Nyckelord: T˚agschemal¨aggning,Metro drift, Operativ effektivitet, T¨atortstrafik , T˚agtidtabell, Stockholms tunnelbana, Bl˚atunnelbanelinjen iii iv Acknowledgements First of all, I would like to thank my supervisors, Anders Lindahl and Jennifer Warg, as well as my examiner Albania Nissan, for their constant guidance, valuable comments and suggestions about this Master thesis. I wish to acknowledge Hans Sipil¨a,from SWECO, for his availability and useful feed- back concerning data and information about the operation of the metro in Stock- holm and for giving me the opportunity to experience the metro operation from the driver's point of view. Josef Andersson contributed to this project by analyzing the expected passenger volumes on the SL network using VISUM software, which I really appreciate. Many thanks to my classmates for the nice moments that we spent at KTH during the last 4 months, sharing the same office and elaborating on our Master projects. Last but not least, I would like to thank my parents, Dimitris and Zoe, and my brother, Dimos, for supporting and encouraging me throughout my studies despite the distance. v vi Abbreviations • PT: Public Transport • SL: Responsible company for the Public Transport system in Stockholm • MTR: Stockholm metro operator • Hju: Hjulsta • Ten: Tensta • Rib: Rinkeby • Ris: Rissne • Duv: Duvdo • Sbg: Sundbybergs centrum • Ssd: Solna station • Huv: Huvudsta • Bsn: Barkarby station • Bas: Barkarbystaden • Aka: Akalla • Hub: Husby • Kis: Kista • Hab: Hallonbergen • N¨ar:N¨ackrosen • Soc: Solna centrum • V¨as:V¨astraskogen • Sha: Stadshagen • Fhp: Fridhemsplan • R˚ah:R˚adhuset vii • Tce: T-Centralen • Ktg: Kungstr¨adg˚arden • Sfa: Sofia • Gup: Gullmarsplan • Slh: Slakthusomr˚adet • Sop: Sockenplan • Svm: Svedmyra • Stb: Stureby • Bah: Bandhagen • H¨od:H¨ogdalen • R˚ag:R˚agsved • Hag: Hags¨atra • Hbk: Hammarby kanal • Sik: Sickla • J¨al:J¨arla • Nac: Nacka viii Contents Abstract . i Sammanfattning . iii Acknowledgements . v Abbreviations . vii 1 Introduction 1 1.1 Background . 1 1.2 Objectives . 3 1.3 Limitations . 4 1.4 Approach . 5 2 Literature Review 7 3 Methodology 11 3.1 Railway planning . 11 3.2 Timetable planning . 12 3.3 Timetable efficiency indicators . 13 4 Existing Metro Network in Stockholm 15 4.1 Description of the existing Blue line . 15 4.1.1 Blue metro line parts . 16 4.1.2 Major metro nodes . 18 4.1.3 Rolling stock . 19 ix Contents 4.2 Operation of the existing Blue line . 20 4.2.1 Travel demand analysis . 20 4.2.2 Timetable description . 25 4.2.3 Operation at major stations . 25 5 Expanded Blue Metro Line 31 5.1 Description of the expanded line . 31 5.2 Planning of the expanded line . 32 5.2.1 Expected travel demand analysis . 32 5.2.2 Line planning . 35 5.2.3 Time constraints assumptions . 35 5.2.4 Rolling stock circulation . 37 6 Analysis of Alternative Timetable Proposals 39 6.1 Alternatives A & B . 39 6.1.1 Alternative A . 39 6.1.2 Alternative B . 43 6.1.3 Alternatives A & B: Comparison . 46 6.2 Alternative C . 48 6.2.1 Alternatives B & C: Comparison . 50 7 Conclusion 53 7.1 Summary . 53 7.2 Further analysis . 54 References . 57 A 59 B 69 x Chapter 1 Introduction 1.1 Background Swedish capital, Stockholm, is one of the fastest growing cities in Europe, with the population of its region expected to increase by more than 17% by 2023, leading to larger demand on public transport (PT ). Specifically, the population of Stockholm County was about 2.2 million inhabitants in 2013, while it is expected to rise to 2.5 million in 2023. The population density in the County is currently about 332 people per km2 and it is expected to rise to almost 400 people per km2 in about 10 years [1]. Figure 1.1: The south Blue line extension [2]. According to the County Council of Stockholm, City of Stockholm, Municipality of Nacka, J¨arf¨allaMunicipality and City of Solna agreed to extend the metro network, which is the most used PT mode in Stockholm, and construct more residential areas in order to serve the expected population increase. The extension of the Blue metro line in Stockholm is part of the agreement. The Blue line will split into two parts in the South part of the network. One branch of the line will connect Kungstr¨adg˚arden 1 Chapter 1. Introduction to Nacka centrum, passing through S¨odermalm(Figure 1.1). 5 new stations (Sofia, Hammarby kanal, Sickla, J¨arlaand Nacka centrum) are going to be constructed on the new Nacka line, which is estimated to be about 7.7 km long[2]. The other branch in the south part of the network will connect Kungstr¨adg˚arden to Gullmarsplan, through Sofia station, and it will finally reach Hags¨atra,replacing one branch of the green line (Figure 1.2). The length of the line between Sofia to Gullmarsplan is estimated to be 3.3 km, while a new station construction is investigated in Slakthusomr˚adet[2]. Figure 1.2: The south Blue line extension [2]. The extended Blue line in the north part of the region will connect Akalla to Barkarby station, through a 3.4 km-long-line. Barkarbystaden and Barkarby sta- tion areas will be investigated on the new part of the line (Figure 1.3). The metro construction in the south part is expected to be completed by 2025, while the inau- guration of the expanded line in the North part is planned to be in 2021 [2]. 2 Chapter 1. Introduction Figure 1.3: The north Blue line extension [2]. The municipalities that signed the agreement about the metro extension, and specif- ically the Municipalities of Nacka and J¨arf¨allaand the City of Solna, are expected to have a large population growth of 23.5%, 21% and 30% by 2023, respectively [1]. For that reason, regarding the residential areas, developing projects are also planned. More than 13 thousands of new houses are planned to be built on Western Sickla¨on in the Municipality of Nacka, while 14 thousands of new residences are agreed to be built in Barkarbystaden, which is a growing part of Barkarby region [2].