Air-Rail Link at Thessaloniki Airport in Greece: How competitive is Monorail to METRO/LRT Systems? Prof. Panagiotis Papaioannou1, Dr Alexandros Deloukas2, Prof. Ioannis Politis3, Prof. Christos Pyrgidis4 1 Professor, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, School of Civil Engineering, Dept of Transport and Construction Management, Corresponding author Tel: +302310 995775, e-mail: [email protected], 2 ATTIKO METRO SA, e-mail: [email protected] 3 Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, School of Civil Engineering, Dept of Transport and Construction Management, e-mail: [email protected] 4 Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, School of Civil Engineering, Dept of Transport and Construction Management, [email protected] Abstract The International Airport of Thessaloniki is the third busiest airport in Greece, serving over 6.5 million passengers annually. The airport is located 14 kms from the city center of Thessaloniki and normally it takes 45 mins to travel to/from the airport by bus. A significant upgrade in terms of capacity is taking place these years according to the airport’s master plan. As of 2017 the airport has been undertaken by Fraport under a 40 years Concession contract. Travelers’ figures have increased significantly in the last 5 years and it is expected that they will continue to grow and may reach double figures by 2030. This increase calls for an improved and more reliable city-airport ground access in the next years. Currently, the airport is served by two Public Transport routes which account only for a small percentage of all person trips. Most travelers, including people employed at the airport, use private cars and taxis. Creating a fixed track connection between the airport and the city of Thessaloniki has been a hot issue in the last years, given that the Metro line which is under construction terminates 5 kms from the airport site. Many discussions among local politicians, involved authorities and the public, are in progress about the best alternative to link the airport with the city. The do-minimum option will be to schedule an express bus from the Metro terminal to the airport and vice versa so that people can reach their destination with one transfer. However, most stakeholders involved agree that ground access by road suffers from congestion impacts and this problem will continue to deteriorate in the future. For this reason, other solutions relying on a fixed track system are on the table. Three alternative rail technology options were examined in a comparative way in order to identify the least expensive one in social, economic and environmental terms. These options comprise: (a) a further extension of the Metro line which is under construction and it is expected to start operations in 2021; (b) a segregated Tramway/LRT which will start from the Metro terminal station and will follow more or less the alignment of the existing highway to the airport; (c) an elevated Monorail – single track - connecting the Metro terminal station with the airport. All alternatives are not only time reliable but also electrified, so their use is air-pollution free and carbon neutral. The rubber-tired technologies investigated are almost free of noise nuisance. The new fixed track corridor under consideration will consist of 5 stations and will have a total length of 5.1 – 6.3 kms depending on the system. The modal operating capacity selected, covers 10 -15 min policy headway, a 20- 25% rail transit share of the total trips and a directed loading of 1,300 passengers per hour per direction (pphpd). For determining future demand and modal split, a comprehensive multi modal transport model, developed by Thessaloniki public Transport Authority, was used as a supplementary tool. Model results were consequently used to perform extended cost/benefit comparative analysis. The investigation of cost (e.g. operating cost, user cost, rolling stock and infrastructure) and benefit (e.g. time variability risk, novelty image, employment creation) elements, indicate that Monorail is likely to be the least costly and most beneficial rail alternative in a total cost (benefit) perspective. The Monorail system also seems to create the least effects to land owners and businessmen in the area. It also seems to be associated with the least risks among the examined rail alternatives. However, the final decision depends on both availability of public and private funds that can be secured and on future expansion potential of each alternative. Keywords: Thessaloniki airport, Rail technologies, Fixed route systems, Monorail, Metro, LRT, Cost Benefit analysis 1 1. Introduction The international airport of Thessaloniki “Macedonia” is the third busiest airport in Greece, serving over 6.0 million passengers annually in the last two years. The airport serves local and international flights mainly to European and Middle East countries and operates on a 24-hour basis. Some 50 airlines travelling to/from 40 countries were served during 2018 from which approximately 21 were charter flight airlines. Thessaloniki airport is considered a regional hub and serves the population of Thessaloniki greater area, which is just over 1 million, as well as the area of the Region of Central Macedonia in Northern Greece including the major tourist area of Chalkidiki. The airport has two runways and currently there is an ambitious plan under implementation which consists of the extension of one runway to accommodate long haul flights, the construction of a new terminal of 31,000 m2 which will double the airport capacity and of other installations. The passenger demand trend is increasing over the years, and it is expected that the demand may reach 10 million passengers annually within the next ten-year period. Figure 1 presents the total passenger demand for the period 1999-2018 Source: https://www.skg-airport.gr/uploads/sys Figure 1: Evolution of airport passengers at Thessaloniki International Airport “Macedonia” (1999-2018) It should be noted that as of 2017 the airport has been undertaken by Fraport under a 40 year Concession contract. Many of the airport upgrading projects are part of the investment proposition by the Concessionaire. The airport is located 14 kms from the city center of Thessaloniki. Available options to reach/leave the airport include private car, taxi and Public Transport bus plus coaches for organized trips. It normally takes 55 to 75 mins to travel from/to Thessaloniki city center to/from the airport by bus, including average waiting time at stops. The respective time by private car or taxi is 50%-60% of the bus time. Extra time of 5-10 mins should be added to the above figure for private car parking and walking time to the terminal. Travel time are considered non satisfactory and it is expected that will be increased significantly in the next years along with passenger demand. Medium to serious congestion problems also appear especially during summer months, given that there is only one ground access link for all possible modes. Figure 2 shows the passenger variation by month for 2018. August is the heaviest month with a share of approximately 12%. 2 Source: https://www.skg-airport.gr/uploads/sys Figure 2: Thessaloniki Airport passenger variation by month (2018) Creating a fixed track connection between the airport and the city of Thessaloniki has been a hot issue in the last decade, given that the Metro line which is under construction terminates 5 kms from the airport site at station MIKRA. Many discussions among local politicians, involved authorities and the public, are in progress about the best alternative to link the airport with the city. The do-minimum option will be to schedule an express bus from the Metro terminal station MIKRA to the airport and vice versa so that people can reach their destination with one transfer. However, most stakeholders involved agree that ground access by road suffers from congestion impacts and this problem will continue to deteriorate in the future. For this reason, other solutions relying on a fixed track system are on the table. Figure 3 shows the map of the Thessaloniki Metro system at its final phase, including the potential Metro extension to the airport. This plan foresees that there will be four stations along the Metro line to the airport. Source: Attiko Metro website (www.ametro.gr) Figure 3: Thessaloniki Metro system map and location of Thessaloniki airport 3 The other fixed track solutions examined at a preliminary level so far are a Tram/LRT surface connection between MIKRA Metro station and the airport and an elevated Monorail connection between the same end points. The three systems, (Metro, Tram/LRT and Monorail), are examined in a comparative way in this paper as future alternative options to connect the terminal station of MIKRA with the airport. The comparison is made against the existing bus connection which will continue to exist no matter if a new system will be implemented. All alternatives, with the exception of bus connection, are not only time reliable but also electrified, so their use is air-pollution free and carbon neutral. The rubber-tired technologies investigated are almost free of noise nuisance. The comparative examination took place in the framework of a CIVITAS CATALIST project completed in 2011 [1], [2] by Thessaloniki Public Transport Authority. The paper is organized as follows. The available data about the airport ground access as well as about the modal split of trip makers to/from the airport are presented in section 2. Section 3 provides a short description of the three alternative fixed track rail options as well as of the bus option. The methodological approach to estimate/forecast travel behavior of trip makers towards each different option and consequently future demand is presented in section 4. Finally, Section 5 is focused on the results and findings of the analysis including the different cost items that correspond to each future option.