Commuting with new transport infrastructure: Change, cost and comfort on the Sofia metro extension Thesis submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy University College London by ANNA EVGENIEVA PLYUSHTEVA Department of Geography University College London September 2016 1 I, ANNA EVGENIEVA PLYUSHTEVA confirm that the work presented in this thesis is my own. Where information has been derived from other sources, I confirm that this has been indicated in the thesis. ANNA EVGENIEVA PLYUSHTEVA 2 Abstract New transport infrastructure reshapes existing everyday mobility arrangements, and is shaped by them in return. This study examines commuting practices as on-going economic, temporal, spatial and affective reconfigurations, following the launch of the second line of the Sofia metro in 2012. The study explores the ways in which qualitative research on everyday mobility practices can help address some of the challenges of appraising the usefulness of transport infrastructure. Data were collected using repeated ride-along interviews with respondents who became metro commuters following the expansion of the Sofia metro network; ride-along interviews with other commuters; ethnography and auto-ethnography; and archival research. These methods highlight the role of longitudinal qualitative data in understanding the embodied experiences of routine public transport use. The analysis considers the frequent metro users’ perspectives on the economic and temporal costs of travel as subjective and embodied practices, arguing qualitative data can augment, rather than replace, quantitative appraisals of transport infrastructure. The collected data also point to the distributed nature of commuters’ comfort and stress, by tracing comfort and stress through the collective, habitual, socio-material affordances of the rush hour. This view complicates the solitary figure of the mobile subject which forms the basis of much of existing transport research. Finally, a framework for thinking about habit and change in everyday mobility is presented. In this study, habit and change are not compartmentalised phases in travel behaviours and biographies, but mutually constitutive arrangements. By exploring modal and non-modal variabilities and shifts, an argument for travel behaviour research beyond mode and lifestyle categories is presented. Through an in-depth engagement with the costs, durations, multimodality, variability, and the comfort/stress of commuting, the thesis contributes to efforts to develop new and different approaching to conceptualising the role in public transport infrastructure in the social and environmental sustainability of cities. 3 Acknowledgements I would like to express my gratitude to the people who volunteered to take part in this study. Each of them was generous with their time and kindness, and added their invaluable knowledge and personality to the project on which I get to put my name. I hope I have done justice to the many insights offered by everyone who contributed to this study as a research participant. Andrew Barnfield, Rumyana Todorova, Evgeny Plyushchev, and Denver Nixon read various parts of the draft, and gave thoughtful comments and suggestions. Any errors and omissions remaining in the thesis presented here, are in the parts which they did not read. Heartfelt thanks go to my supervisors in the UCL Department of Geography, Alan Latham and Russell Hitchings. Throughout the last four and a half years, I have been able to count on their guidance, support, and continued encouragement. Their enthusiastic approach to geographical research, and their ideas on urban societies, mobilities, and everyday life, have been a major inspiration for this thesis. Throughout my time at UCL Geography, Susan Hennessy, Suse Keay, Maria Rodriguez and Janet Hope have been hugely supportive, and it is thanks to them that I was able to navigate the challenges of funding, research expenses, fieldwork and teaching. Very special thanks go to my colleagues, the doctoral students who have been working so hard in Room 214 of the Pearson Building, but also beyond. From organising writing groups to sharing yet another pot of coffee, this journey would not have been the same without Aidan Mosselson, Myfanwy Taylor, Ruth Cheung Judge, Pooya Ghodoussi, Susana Neves Alves, Jin-ho Chung, Thien Vinh Nguyen, Ben Flower, Richard Mazebedi, Hannah Fair, Emma Wiik, Luca Marazzi, Sam Halvorsen, Joe Thorogood, and Michael Nattrass. People say that doing a PhD is a lonely affair, but this group of researchers make academia a place of collaboration, mutual support, and kindness. I would also like to gratefully acknowledge the financial support of the Economic and Social Research Council, which has enabled me to undertake this study. To be here today, adding Acknowledgements to a PhD thesis, is a privilege I owe to a great extent to a group of people whose friendships have stood the test of time and space. Irmena, Ivan, Ina, Maria, Milena, Mihaylina, Rositsa, Sava, and Yavor; so much has happened in your lives during the last few years. I am still amazed at the way in which you always found time for me – speaking words of encouragement; sharing a laugh; finding 4 respondents and contacts, and ways to cheer me up when it was all getting a bit much. Thank you so much for being so patient and so wonderful. In London, I have received a lot of help from a group of people who, like me, sometimes have their heads in the UK and their hearts in Bulgaria. The support of Atanas, Boris, Antoinette, Kristina, and Anna has been invaluable. Some exceptional individuals helped me during my stay in Sofia. I am especially thankful to Yanna, Nadezhda, Galina, and everyone from the Park Run, and the Gradinka zad Bloka urban gardening team. Mihaela, finding a friend like you in Sofia has been one of the best things about this endeavour. Thank you for everything. Andrew, you have given me so much over the course of this project, from great ideas and stimulating debate, to care, encouragement and fun. I am so happy to be sharing this adventure with you. My parents, Rumyana and Evgeny, made it all possible. With their support, advice, and seemingly endless capacity to endure conversations about the trials of PhD life, they have helped me to persevere with it, and to enjoy it. Mum and Dad, I am grateful to you every day. 5 Table of Contents Chapter 1. Introduction ................................................................................................................................... 11 Chapter 2. A History of the Sofia metro .................................................................................................... 17 Introduction ..................................................................................................................................................... 17 2.1. What kind of city: Envisioning a metro for Sofia ..................................................................... 19 2.2. What kind of transport: The 1972 metro plan .......................................................................... 22 2.3. Slow progress: Building the Sofia metro in the 1970s and 1980s .................................... 27 2.4. Changing course: The metro and the fall of state socialism ................................................ 29 2.5. 1998-2009: The launch ...................................................................................................................... 32 2.6. 2009-present: The everyday metro .............................................................................................. 36 Conclusion: What does a metro project do? ....................................................................................... 39 Chapter 3. Theoretical framework .............................................................................................................. 41 Introduction ..................................................................................................................................................... 41 3.1. Public transport and the future of urban mobility .................................................................. 42 3.2. Transport project appraisal: What makes good infrastructure and how do we know ............................................................................................................................................................................... 46 3.3. Appraising infrastructural change qualitatively ...................................................................... 49 3.4. Thinking about transport infrastructure .................................................................................... 55 3.5. Commuting, habits and changing behaviours ........................................................................... 57 Conclusion ........................................................................................................................................................ 64 Chapter 4. Inspirations, Methods, Limitations ....................................................................................... 65 Introduction ..................................................................................................................................................... 65 4.1. Epistemological background ............................................................................................................ 66 4.2. Longitudinal research design ..........................................................................................................