Poznań Fast Tram
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Poznań Fast Tram ( pl, Poznański Szybki Tramwaj, PST, informally: PeSTka, ''pestka'' – drupe, stone fruit) is a stretch of
grade-separated In civil engineering (more specifically highway engineering), grade separation is a method of aligning a junction of two or more surface transport axes at different heights (grades) so that they will not disrupt the traffic flow on other tran ...
tram A tram (called a streetcar or trolley in North America) is a rail vehicle that travels on tramway tracks on public urban streets; some include segments on segregated right-of-way. The tramlines or networks operated as public transport are ...
/ light rail line of the
tram system A tram (called a streetcar or trolley in North America) is a rail vehicle that travels on tramway tracks on public urban streets; some include segments on segregated right-of-way. The tramlines or networks operated as public transport are ...
in
Poznań Poznań () is a city on the River Warta in west-central Poland, within the Greater Poland region. The city is an important cultural and business centre, and one of Poland's most populous regions with many regional customs such as Saint John ...
,
Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populous ...
. The tracks are set in a cutting or on an
overpass An overpass (called an overbridge or flyover in the United Kingdom and some other Commonwealth countries) is a bridge, road, railway or similar structure that crosses over another road or railway. An ''overpass'' and ''underpass'' together form ...
,
switch In electrical engineering, a switch is an electrical component that can disconnect or connect the conducting path in an electrical circuit, interrupting the electric current or diverting it from one conductor to another. The most common type of ...
es allowing to drive on adjacent tracks. The stops, resembling railroad stations, have a different color scheme each. This tram line was created as an alternative to a more expensive
metro Metro, short for metropolitan, may refer to: Geography * Metro (city), a city in Indonesia * A metropolitan area, the populated region including and surrounding an urban center Public transport * Rapid transit, a passenger railway in an urba ...
. The PST, opened in 1997, links the densely populated northern districts of
Winogrady Winogrady is a part of the Stare Miasto district of the city of Poznań in western Poland. It is situated north of the ''Cytadela'' park (the former Poznań citadel). The name refers to the vineyards which formerly existed in the area – histo ...
and Piątkowo with the city center.


System

* Length: * Number of
stops Stop may refer to: Places *Stop, Kentucky, an unincorporated community in the United States * Stop (Rogatica), a village in Rogatica, Republika Srpska, Bosnia and Herzegovina Facilities * Bus stop * Truck stop, a type of rest stop for truck dri ...
: 9 * Maximum speed: * Capacity: 5000 persons per hour * Trams run every 2.5 minutes during the rush hours, otherwise every 5 minutes


Background

Poznań is a city with about half a million inhabitants, with slightly over a million in the entire metropolitan area. Most of the city's office buildings are located in the center, while most light industry is located uptown or in the suburbs around the city. Hence most trips by public transport are to and from the center.


History

The first Poznań public transport company started its business activity in 1880, with a few horse-pulled trams. At that time, the town had about 70,000 inhabitants, and was not growing due to building restrictions imposed by the Prussian military administration creating ''
Festung Posen ''Festung'' is a generic German language, German word for a fortress. Although it is not in common usage in English, it is used in a number of historical contexts involving German speakers: * For historical fortresses in Austria, Germany or Switze ...
'' ("Poznań Stronghold"), see Poznań in the Kingdom of Prussia (1793–1918). Soon after the company was established, the construction limitations were lifted, and the town grew very fast to about 200,000 inhabitants in 1920s. By that time there were some early ideas of creating a segregated line that would link the center with one of the northern districts. Neither technology nor the budget allowed for a construction of such a tram line, and metro, would have been too ambitious and unnecessary, so the plans were shelved. In the 1960s and 1970s, Poland's communist government built
blocks of flats A tower block, high-rise, apartment tower, residential tower, apartment block, block of flats, or office tower is a tall building, as opposed to a low-rise building and is defined differently in terms of height depending on the jurisdictio ...
in the north and east of the city. This created a high population density and thus a high demand for transportation. However, these districts were poorly served by public transport: it took up to 45 minutes by bus to travel to the city center. A corridor was left for the construction of a tram line. Original plans envisioned a 27 kilometer line completely separate from the existing tram network, conceptually similar to the WKD light rail line in
Warsaw Warsaw ( pl, Warszawa, ), officially the Capital City of Warsaw,, abbreviation: ''m.st. Warszawa'' is the capital and largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the River Vistula in east-central Poland, and its population is officia ...
. The line was to run from the main railway station in the city center to
Winogrady Winogrady is a part of the Stare Miasto district of the city of Poznań in western Poland. It is situated north of the ''Cytadela'' park (the former Poznań citadel). The name refers to the vineyards which formerly existed in the area – histo ...
, Piątków,
Morasko Morasko is a part of the Stare Miasto district of Poznań, in western Poland. It covers a fairly large but little-urbanised area in the north of the city. To the west and north it borders on the village and municipality of Suchy Las, a developin ...
and the village of
Owińska Owińska is a village in the administrative district of Gmina Czerwonak, within Poznań County, Greater Poland Voivodeship, in west-central Poland. It lies approximately north of Czerwonak and north of the regional capital Poznań. The village ...
outside the city limits, with several branches. Ultimately however the project was limited to only a 6 kilometer line in the northern part of the city, joining the existing network in the city center. The construction work commenced in 1975, progressed very slowly, finally stalling at 60%Andrzej KRYCH SZYBKI I SZYBSZY TRAMWAJ - EWALUACJA IDEI I APLIKACJI NA PRZYKLADZIE POZNANIA in 1990, after the fall of
communism Communism (from Latin la, communis, lit=common, universal, label=none) is a far-left sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology and current within the socialist movement whose goal is the establishment of a communist society, a s ...
. Construction resumed in 1993, and the entire project was ready by the end of 1996. The line opened on February 1, 1997. Travel times between the northern districts and the center decreased from about 40 minutes to some 10–15 minutes. This, combined with limited and paid parking space in the center, contributed to the huge success of the line, with overcrowding at peak times. The tracks originally served three routes, in 1999, a fourth one was added, reaching the limits of the lines capacity with trams run every 2.5 minutes at peak times. As the line has not been fitted with a
train protection system A train protection system is a railway technical installation to ensure safe operation in the event of human error. Development Train stops The earliest systems were train stops, as still used by the New York City Subway, the Toronto subway, t ...
, smaller intervals are not allowed for safety reasons. The trams suffered from vandalism and from a lack of security. These problems, however, diminished when surveillance cameras were installed. The project has had a very positive impact on the communities it serves, making them more attractive for investors, and stopping depopulation. Some institutions and companies served by the tram, listed by station, include: (those marked by a plus (+) have moved in the general area after the opening of the line): * Słowiańska (green) — student dormitories, Courts of Law (+) * Al. Solidarności (previously Serbska; yellow) — 3 supermarkets (+), a large office building (+) * Lechicka/Poznań Plaza (previously Lechicka; blue) — a supermarket (+), Poznań Plaza shopping mall (+) * Kurpińskiego (orange) — a bank (+), a small supermarket, a clinic * Szymanowskiego (red) — a supermarket (+), and a large development of modern apartment blocks * Osiedle Jana III Sobieskiego (terminus) —
Adam Mickiewicz University Adam; el, Ἀδάμ, Adám; la, Adam is the name given in Genesis 1-5 to the first human. Beyond its use as the name of the first man, ''adam'' is also used in the Bible as a pronoun, individually as "a human" and in a collective sense as " ...
campus In 2011 work began on a previously cut 2 kilometer long extension of the line to the
Poznań Główny railway station Poznań Główny, anglicised to Poznan Main, is the chief railway station for the city of Poznań, Poland's fifth-largest city, and capital of the Greater Poland Province. The station is located at a junction of Warsaw–Kunowice railway, Wr ...
in the city center, sandwiched between the preexisting tram line running in the city streets and railway tracks. The extension was opened in 2013 with its own
turning loop A balloon loop, turning loop, or reversing loop ( North American Terminology) allows a rail vehicle or train to reverse direction without having to shunt or stop. Balloon loops can be useful for passenger trains and unit freight trains. Bal ...
, which allows for operating longer trams sets that could partially alleviate congestion.


Current lines


Future development

Similar fast tram networks exist in other parts of the world — namely in
Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...
,
Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Amstel'') is the Capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, most populous city of the Netherlands, with The Hague being the seat of government. It has a population ...
, and
Brussels Brussels (french: Bruxelles or ; nl, Brussel ), officially the Brussels-Capital Region (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) (french: link=no, Région de Bruxelles-Capitale; nl, link=no, Bruss ...
— while several other cities, beginning with
Karlsruhe Karlsruhe ( , , ; South Franconian: ''Kallsruh'') is the third-largest city of the German state (''Land'') of Baden-Württemberg after its capital of Stuttgart and Mannheim, and the 22nd-largest city in the nation, with 308,436 inhabitants. ...
, have used mainline railway tracks to expand their tram networks. However, those cities are much larger and have gone further towards the development of trams into metro-style, heavier vehicles. It was therefore important for the Poznań administration to find out on their own how successful the program would be. As the program had proved successful, another new tram line started in early 2005, connecting the city center with eastern district of Rataje. It is not truly a fast tram, but the success of the first program has prompted the authority to convert an existing line into a faster one.


See also

*
Trams in Poznań The Poznań tram system is a tramway operated by (MPK Poznań; ''Public Transport Company in Poznań Ltd.''). It currently has 20 daytime lines, one night line, and one tourist line served by historical vehicles. The tram system consists of about ...
*
List of town tramway systems in Poland This is a list of town tramway systems in Poland. It includes all tram systems in Poland, past and present; cities with currently operating systems, and those systems themselves, are indicated in bold and blue background colored rows. Those tram ...


References


External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Poznanski Szybki Tramwaj Transport in Poznań Tram transport in Poland Rapid transit in Poland