Redefining of the Rijeka Railway Junction
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S. Vilke, L. Šantić, M. Glad: Redefining of the Rijeka Railway Junction SINIŠA VILKE, M.Sc. Traffic Planning E-mail: [email protected] Preliminary Communication LIVIA ŠANTIĆ, B.Eng. Accepted: July 14, 2010 E-mail: [email protected] Approved: Nov. 15, 2011 University of Rijeka, Faculty of Maritime Studies Studentska 2, 51000 Rijeka, Croatia MATIJA GLAD, M.Sc. E-mail: [email protected] Hrvatske ceste d.o.o. Vončinina 3, 10000 Zagreb, Croatia REDEFINING OF THE RIJEKA RAILWAY JUNCTION ABSTRACT Europe with the northern Adriatic or wider with the Mediterranean areas. This transport corridor connects This paper presents and analyses the redefined Rijeka the three Croatian geographic units: central, moun- railway junction. The redefined concept of the Rijeka railroad tainous and coastal regions. hub in the context of port and railway interdependence dic- tates the need to find the accommodation of cargo transport The objective and purpose of research is to analyze to peripheral locations such as: Krasica, Kukuljanovo, Bakar, the existing modernization plans of the Rijeka railway Ivani, Bršica and capacity for the island of Krk, while pas- junction and to determine their interaction effect on senger transport would be implemented in the urban area. the development of the Port of Rijeka. Due to high con- The most important projects related to Rijeka rail transport gestion and low service level, the existing rail transport system are the construction of a new line of high efficiency facilities represent a bottleneck for the entire Rijeka between Zagreb and Rijeka, and a new railroad through the gateway. Because of insufficient capacity during the tunnel of Učka which will link the ports of Rijeka, Koper and nineteen-eighties and -nineties, the railways were a Trieste. Together with the reconstruction of cargo stations limiting factor for the Rijeka transport development Rijeka and Brajdica, an extension of the other tracks on the railroads Škrljevo-Rijeka and Rijeka-Opatija/Matulji should and indirectly for the Port of Rijeka. be performed as well as the construction of Krasica, Ivani, Following the problem, the objective and purpose Tijani and Vrgljevo stations. The construction includes a mul- of research, the working hypothesis has been defined, tipurpose bridge to the Island of Krk and a railway line to the which reads: without the harmonization of the devel- new container terminal as well as the new railway bypass to opment plans of the Port of Rijeka and the railway “elevation 200”. junction, which have to be aligned with the planned traffic, it is not possible to ensure rational spatial ex- KEY WORDS pansion of the port system and the generation of new rail capacity. Rijeka railway junction, railway transport system, railway transport, Port of Rijeka 2. DEVELOPMENT PLANS FOR THE RIJEKA 1. INTRODUCTION PORT AND RAIL TRANSPORT FORECAST FOR RIJEKA RAILWAY JUNCTION Spatial and traffic definition of the Rijeka railway junction in the context of rational connection with the The Port of Rijeka has become a land and sea wider area of continental hinterland, is in direct func- routes junction of the Pan-European branch VB on the tion with the strategic orientations of the maritime Rijeka-Zagreb route, due to its geographical and trans- economy and port policy[1]. port location. This branch has the most important role Rijeka transport facilities which include the Kvar- in the transport system of the Republic of Croatia since ner Bay with the Island of Krk and part of Istra with it connects the Danube region and the Adriatic, and Raša and Pula are the starting and target points of is also important as a link between Central European the Pan-European branch VB and important segments countries and the Adriatic and the Mediterranean. The of the future longitudinal European Adriatic-Ionian cor- Adriatic orientation of Croatia just highlights the prior- ridor. Transverse directional Pan-European branch VB ity of transport connections between the Pannonian (Rijeka-Karlovac-Zagreb-Budapest) connects Central and Adriatic region. The Port of Rijeka represents the Promet – Traffic&Transportation, Vol. 23, 2011, No. 6, 443-451 443 S. Vilke, L. Šantić, M. Glad: Redefining of the Rijeka Railway Junction connection point of the Danube region and the Adriatic and the mainland, it is necessary to build a new high- by the shortest route which is directed through Croatia efficiency railway line Zagreb-Rijeka of lowland char- and is therefore an important factor of the Croatian acteristic. involvement in the European integrations. The share of railway transport in delivery/dis- According to the development plan of the Port of patch of cargo from/to the Port of Rijeka in the 1990s Rijeka the largest traffic increase is expected in the amounted to about 90%. The construction of the Ri- container traffic and therefore the investments of up- jeka-Zagreb motorway diverted much of the goods to grading and construction of container terminals are road transport and consequently today the share of extremely important [11]. The upgrading plan includes railway cargo transport, as an environmentally friendly the Container terminal Brajdica, while the construction transport branch, amounts to approximately 30%. An- plan includes a new container terminal on the Zagreb alyzing the container transport, the share of railway in quay and a new container terminal on the island of the total inland transport of goods with the source and Krk. destination in the Port of Rijeka is between 20 and The existing container terminal of the Port of Ri- 25%. jeka does not meet the current traffic needs. In the In the Study of construction justifiability for railway next three years the terminal capacity and transfer State Border-Botovo-Zagreb-Rijeka [12] and the Study performance from ships to terminal will be increased of Rijeka railway transport system [14] regarding the by means of two additional container cranes on the dimensioning of the Rijeka hub capacity, two scenar- existing south quay, and it is also planned to build a ios were considered and then used for the projection new 328m operative quay with one additional berth. of future traffic. The basis for the projection was the So, by the end of 2012 the Container terminal Brajdi- traffic forecast of the Port of Rijeka according to the ca should get new 50,000m2 of surface area, the sea Master plan [11] and the potential transit traffic from depth should be 14.5m and the total capacity could be Zagreb to Trieste and in the opposite direction. 500,000 TEU. Considering the forecasts of traffic for certain types In order to achieve effective coordination of sub- of cargo and the movements of good flows, two types systems of railway transport within the integrated and of traffic projections were made. As the forecast for multimodal transportation it is necessary to invest in the basis of dimensioning of all the parameters for the railway part of the Brajdica terminal. These con- modernization and construction of railroads in Rijeka struction projects include the railways extension in or- railway junction the variant showing high traffic flow der to deliver more wagons for containers transporta- scenario has been accepted. tion on the loading tracks and the upgrading of three Traffic forecast for 2031 according to these sce- tracks. narios, in addition to the trends of increased traffic up The new container terminal on the Zagreb pier in to 2026, takes into account the planned construction the western part of the existing port would include of a new container port on the island of Krk, as well in its final development phase 1,400m of new quay as higher traffic on the corridor between the Danube which would be able to berth the most modern con- and the Adriatic region or of bulk cargo terminal in tainer and RORO vessels, while its total traffic should Bakar. The expansion of the gravitational area of the amount to 800,000 TEU per year. new high efficiency Rijeka-Zagreb railway is predicted It is estimated that about 60% of containers should as well as the construction of the part of the future be delivered or despatched by means of railways and Adriatic-Ionian railway. After the construction of a new about 40% by trucks [11]. The already constructed Rijeka-Zagreb railway and a new railroad of lowland rail facilities would be used as railway terminal while features from Rijeka to Trieste, substantial transit traf- the existing tracks which should be placed next to the fic through the Rijeka junction can be expected. This planned terminal would be used as loading-unloading would generate advantageous transport connections place for containers. for transit traffic from Eastern Europe towards Italy, The construction of a new container terminal on Switzerland, France and the Netherlands in relation to the island of Krk is planned and consequently the the existing rail link through Slovenia, that is, through construction of a new bridge. The new container ter- Ljubljana and Divača. minal on the Island of Krk would be under a free eco- Table 1 shows the forecast of railway traffic, which nomic zone that would include the existing oil terminal consists of port traffic, traffic of other users of the rail- and DIOKI Petrochemical facilities, a new LNG termi- way system and transit traffic through the railway junc- nal and other business and economic activities. The tion. The traffic projection on the connecting railways above mentioned terminal would have a total transfer of Rijeka railway junction, in the direction of Zagreb capacity of more than 2.5 million TEU per year, and and Slovenia is shown as well. should be connected with the mainland thanks to a Given the expected substantial increase in con- newly constructed road-rail multipurpose bridge.