Light Rail in Switzerland: Case Study of Bern Suburban Area
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Light Rail in Switzerland: Case Study of Bern Suburban Area Peter Scheidegger, Regionalverkehr Bern-Solothurn, Bern, Switzerland Bern, the capital of Switzerland, has only 330, 000 inhab• Reasons for these statistics include the following: itants. It has preserved a comprehensive streetcar and bus • Topography. Towns in valleys and along rivers and network within the historic city. Some suburbs are served lakes are lined up like pearls on a string. One single line by a separate four-line light rail transit (LRT) system, of bus or rail can serve these locations economically. which has been upgraded progressively during the past 30 • Comprehensive network of public transport. years and today enjoys a high level of technical and op• Thanks to federal, state, and local subsidies, not only erational success. Thanks to the flexibility of LRT, invest• cities and their suburbs, but all towns and all tourist ments could be concentrated on the sections that needed resorts can be reached by public transportation. them most. Special operating concerns were increasing speed • Land use planning. Offices are still mainly in the and reducing the demand on rolling stock. A new type of central business districts (CBDs) of cities. Housing areas car with a partly low floor and enhanced comfort level was have greater density than they do in the United States. introduced in 1993. In the last 10 years, the share of com• • Environmental concern. Switzerland—a typical muter traffic to the city (modal split) improved from 50 to tourist country—has always been concerned about its 60 percent. Popular concern about the environment moti• environment. As more dead trees in the European for• vated the issue of cheap season tickets throughout Switzer• ests were detected after 1980, a green movement land. This national policy, coupled with the unbalanced emerged within most political parties. Voters did ex• peak and off-peak loading patterns typical of metropolitan press their wishes for better public transportation transit systems, means that LRT fares do not cover all of its through popular referendums (1). costs. Even so, fares cover 60 percent of operating costs. • Social behavior. Even the most prestigious Swiss bank managers use clean and reliable buses, streetcars, lthough it is one of the world's wealthiest coun• or trains to go to work. tries, Switzerland has never stopped emphasiz• A ing public transportation. The share of the mar• The Swiss rail network is summarizing in the follow• ket captured by public transportation is given in the ing table (2): following table: Passengers Length per year Segment Share (%) Rail Network (km) (millions) Nationwide 18 In cities 30-50 Standard gauge 3 707 318 Peak hour toward central 50-80 Meter gauge regional 1 402 78 business district (CBD) Meter gauge local (streetcar) 181 365 66 SCHEIDEGGER 67 Most meter gauge rail lines may be regarded as light Approximate rail transit (LRT), although a great variety exists. In the Journeys per cities of Basel, Bern, Geneva, and Zurich, streetcars run Mode Year (millions) mainly on the road surface. But in mountain regions, locomotive-hauled electric trains with up to 12 coaches Local streetcars and buses 125 operate on a 3 75-km meter gauge network. Because Standard gauge commuter 19 they have aluminum bodies, these 16-m-long coaches rail (excluding intercity weigh only 15 T, so this system may still be called light trains) rail. Between these two extremes, there are all inter• Meter gauge commuter rail 18 mediate types of LRT for suburban, regional, and even (LRT) rural services. Regional buses 7 LRT lines have been improved step by step, accord• ing to available financial resources and operational Approximately 40 percent of all journeys in the con• needs (e.g., separation of tracks from roads). Because urbation are made by public transportation. The num• of the adaptability of LRT, only a few rail lines had to ber of rides by public transportation per capita each day be closed. However, the scope for new lines is small: in is approximately 1.4 in the city and 0.8 in the suburbs 1992 Lausanne opened an LRT line on a totally segre• served by LRT. gated alignment (but with at-grade crossings), connect• ing the city center with suburbs and a new university. In 1995 Geneva is opening a second streetcar line. BERN SUBURBAN LRT The main activity lies in technical and operational improvements. Three features now adopted worldwide History of Regionalverkehr Bern-Solothurn were developed in Switzerland: (RBS) 1. Open access. Ascom-Autelca and Sadamel in• Four meter gauge LRT suburban lines were opened be• stalled in the late 1970s ticket vending and canceling tween 1898 and 1913. They all entered the city on local machines at every stop of the streetcar lines. This is now streetcar tracks on the surface; the cars looked like nar• common practice even on regional and suburban trains row U.S. interurbans. Although private car ownership of the Swiss Federal Railways (heavy rail). grew very fast after World War 2, ridership on these 2. Low-floor streetcars. The first modern low-floor lines grew, too, because of suburban development, lim• car was introduced in 1987 by the Swiss manufacturer ited parking space in the city, and a frequent train ser• Vevey Technologies on the Geneva system. This idea has vice with well-located stops. The growing private traffic spread to France and Germany as well as to the bus and the long trains in narrow streets and on busy at- industry. grade crossings interfered with each other more and 3. LRT and bus priorities at traffic lights. Such pri• more over the years. orities were already commonly used during the 1970s (3). In addition, Switzerland was the second country after the Netherlands to adopt coordinated regular in• Modernization terval time tables for all intercity and regional rail ser• vices and most connecting bus services on a nationwide In the 1960s, a comprehensive modernization program basis. started that was financed and implemented step by step. After each step, taxpayers could assess the progress. The BERN flexible adaption of LRT technology enabled the effort to be directed first to the sections nearest the city center, Within a metropolitan population of 330,000, the city where traffic volume was highest and improvements of Bern itself has only 130,000 inhabitants but offers were most urgent. In 1965 a tunnel was opened to the the same number of jobs, mainly in offices. The CBD city center (main station) for the two most heavily used has a medieval layout. In a circle of 1-km radius around fines (like the Blue Line entrance to the Los Angeles the main station, there are a first-class shopping center CBD). In 1974 a third fine was diverted into this tunnel, and 60,000 jobs but only 6,000 public and private so that today only the fourth line, which is of more parking spaces. In several referendums, voters have ac• streetcar character, still runs on street trackage into the cepted a very constricting parking policy to reduce traf• city. The first three lines now run on exclusive right of fic and maintain ecological goals (4). way, although there are still some mostly full-gate- The table presents a summary of public transporta• protected at-grade crossings in the suburban and inter- tion in the Bern area: urban area. Outside the common trunk route, most sec- 68 SEVENTH NATIONAL CONFERENCE ON LIGHT RAIL TRANSIT tions are single track, although there may be up to 16 • The drop-and-catch principle (coupling and un• trains per peak hour (standard is 8 trains per hour). coupling of rolling stock en route), In the past 30 years ridership has doubled, from 9 • The novelties-without-risk principle (low-floor million to 18 million per year. The fare-box recovery rolling stock with standard trucks), rate is approximately 60 percent (operational costs in• • The subway principle (layout of the vehicle entry cluding track renewal). vestibule), and • The diversity principle (different seating layouts). ELEMENTS OF SUCCESS All of these elements were copied from other rail op• erators and developed over the years to fit like a puzzle Several aspects of Swiss LRT—which may differ from and create an attractive and economic way of U.S. practice—are described: operation. • The tree principle (cooperation of rail and bus), Tree Principle • The cascade principle (adaption of rail service to demand on longer suburban lines using zone express RBS's service philosophy can best be explained by the scheduling). tree symbol (Figure 1): a trunk (rail, which has a big Oberdorf Aescbl Bellach Ruttenen SchnottwU Messen Solottaurn Koppigen Utzenstoif Batterkinden Kappelisacker Utzigen r Moosegg Bariswil PTT / Munchenbuchsee Grosshiicbstetten Worb. Hirzenreld Breitenramplatz ZolUkoren Allmendingen UnterzoUikoren Worblaufen Bern-Helvetiaplatz Bern HB iRaU I Bus FIGURE 1 Network tree. SCHEIDEGGER 69 capacity but is expensive) can live only if it is fed by Daily passengers Stopping pattern roots (urban streetcars and buses) and branches (sub• trains per hour (peak) urban and rural feeder buses). Following this principle, RBS created new bus lines with local grants and con• 2811 Solothum Imcmrban nected them as closely to the LRT as possible (time• Area table coordination, through-ticketing, and cross- platform interchanges between rail and buses) Jegenstorf (Figure 2). Ouicr-Suburban UnlerzoUikofen Worblaufen nncr Cascade Principle Siibiirbaii Bern S422 16055 24477 To serve the Bern-Solothurn corridor, RBS has adopted the same practice as the French railways for the Paris FIGURE 3 Traffic demand and stopping pattern. suburban area. The corridor is divided into three sec• tions (Figure 3). The first type of train serves the inner suburban area; the second type serves the outer subur• to the end of the line (or running more frequent services ban area, not stopping in the inner suburban area; the with LRT), the cascade principle caters to the demand third type is the interurban, running nonstop to the end on each section and therefore economizes rolling stock of the outer suburban area.