Article citation information:
Grzelec, K., Birr, K. Development of trolleybus
public transport in Gdynia as part of a sustainable mobility strategy. Scientific Journal of Silesian University of Technology. Series
Transport. 2016, 92, 53-63. ISSN: 0209-3324. DOI:
10.20858/sjsutst.2016.92.6.
Krzysztof GRZELEC[1], Krystian BIRR[2]
development
of trolleybus public transport in Gdynia as part of a sustainable mobility
strategy
Summary. In
many EU cities, trolleybuses are experiencing a period of revitalization. New
lines, state-of-the-art designs, the use of auxiliary propulsion batteries,
ecological values and other factors offer great opportunities for this kind of
public transport as an effective tool to shape transport policy in accordance
with the principles of sustainable mobility.
Gdynia is one of three cities in Poland with a trolleybus public
transport subsystem. Since the beginning of political and economic
transformation, Gdynia’s authority consistently implements measures aimed at
balancing urban mobility, above all by improving the quality of public
transport services and creating conditions for the development of alternatives
forms of transport to private car travel.
The experience of the development of trolleybuses in Gdynia as an
element of sustainable mobility, the nature of this means of transport in both
economic and operation terms, the implementation of original technological
solutions in the trolleybuses’ construction and the impact on
decision-making by marketing research are the areas of interest in this paper.
Keywords:
public transport; management; trolleybuses; sustainable mobility.
1. Introduction:
sustainable mobility STRATEGY
The aim of the sustainable urban
mobility strategy is to increase the accessibility of urban areas and to ensure
the effective processes of movement, such as access, passing through the area
and moving within the urban area.
The sustainable mobility strategy
sets objectives and priority actions to achieve and perform in the next decade,
or even decades to come, taking into account the needs of residents and the
local, regional, national and EU strategic objectives of transport policy, as well
as socio-economic and spatial development within the framework of the comprehensive
policy.
The mobility strategy, in line with
the principles of sustainable development, contributes to the balanced
development of all modes of transport, while favouring the transition to
greener subsystems, in the following ways:
• public
transport - by raising the quality of the provided services, increasing their
safety and availability and extending the integration of services
• non-motorized
transport - by increasing the attractiveness and safety of walking and cycling
• intermodality - through the integration of different
transport modes and the facilitation of changes of means of transport during a
journey
• road
transport infrastructure - optimizing the use of existing road infrastructure,
taking into account flowing and slower traffic
• intelligent
transportation systems (ITS) - their use supports effective traffic management
of all modes of transport and services for the mobility of both people and
goods
2. Potential
role of trolleybus transportATION in the sustainable mobility policy
The trolleybus transport subsystem,
with its characteristics, can play an important part in achieving the main
goals of sustainable urban transport. The urban public transport system will be
one of the pillars of sustainable mobility; however, in many cities, it is
still one of the main sources of pollution and exhaust emission.
Therefore, the development of technologies using electric power has become the
driving force in the change of the fleet structure in recent years. Electric
vehicles, compared with diesel-powered vehicles, are more efficient and productive.
It is essential that, within the
plans of public transport development (including electric vehicles), a
comprehensive approach is adopted, which balances the transport issues in
social, economic and environmental aspects. One of the most important global
policy objectives of sustainable mobility is to reduce the negative impact of
transport on the environment. Trolleybus transportation is part of this policy
as a way of eradicating direct pollution from the cities. The development of
any trolleybus subsystem is fully compliant with the current goals and
environmental commitments, providing an innovative approach to the organization
of public transport. Trolleybus transportation fits well into the concept of electromobility, which assumes the use of individual
electric vehicles, such as electric bicycles, electric cars, electric scooters,
electric motorcycles and public transport systems, including trams, trains,
buses and electrobuses. The operation of the
electrical subsystems of public transport in the Tri-City area (Gdańsk-Gdynia-Sopot) is a significant facilitation in
developing sustainable urban mobility.
An intermediate goal of sustainable
mobility is to achieve a balanced representation of the different means of
transport used for everyday travel. To achieve this objective, users of the
system should be provided with an attractive way of travelling by public
transport, which should be as competitive as possible with other means,
especially passenger cars. In this respect, the trolleybus subsystem is
characterized by good performance properties, including dynamic acceleration,
being vibration-free and low noise levels inside the vehicle.
Gdynia is an example of the growing
role played by trolleybus transportation in shaping sustainable mobility.
3. Policy
of sustainable mobility in Gdynia
In common with other cities in Poland, Gdynia has been struggling with
the problem of growing individual motorization for many years. In response to
the problem of increasing traffic congestion, the city undertook various activities
aimed at stopping and reversing the negative trend. The instrument used in
the implementation of a sustainable transport policy is the Sustainable Urban Mobility Plan (SUMP), which defines a set of actions
that aims to effectively solve transport problems and, in a sustainable way,
meets the needs of the movement of people and goods in Gdynia. The main
objective of Gdynia’s SUMP is to
achieve a sustainable urban transport system through the implementation of such
objectives as:
• increasing road safety (pedestrians, cyclists, drivers/passenger
cars) and safety in public transport vehicles
• reducing noise and air pollution, carbon dioxide emission and
energy consumption
• improving the effectiveness and efficiency of transporting people
and goods
• improving the attractiveness and quality of the urban area
• improving the residents’ quality of life
• improving the accessibility of transport services for residents
The priority of public transport development was realized by the
modernization of the fleet and investment in energy-efficient and low-emission
vehicles: in other words, buses powered by compressed natural gas, modern buses
that meet the highest environmental standards and trolleybuses. The role and
importance of trolleybuses were confirmed in all the major strategic documents
of the Gdynia local authority. Trolleybus transportation is an implementation
task included in the Strategy for
Development of the City of Gdynia, which is regarded as being
environmentally friendly and contributing to the unique image of the city.
There have also been actions undertaken to promote public transport traffic
through the use of designated bus lanes and also priority at traffic lights,
which is the result of the implementation of the Tri-Star traffic
management system in Gdynia.
4. Public
transport in Gdynia
At the beginning of the process of economic transformation in Poland (the
1990s), Gdynia’s authorities immediately took
measures to improve the quality of public transport services. At that time, the
objectives of the transport policy of the city were subject to different
conditions of transport organization (Table 1), which focused primarily on
improving the cost-effectiveness of providing services based on market forces
and improving the quality of these services through competition between
operators. Since Poland was not a member of the EU and could not benefit
from European funds, the main direction of change in the operation of public
transport was set out by the changes in the organization and management of the
transport system.
Table 1. Selected
characteristics of the transport system in Gdynia in 1996 and 2013
|
Item |
1996 |
2013 |
|
Share of households with a car (%) |
48 |
74 |
|
Share of passenger cars in urban journeys (%) |
32 |
54 |
|
Share of public transport in urban journeys (%) |
68 |
46 |
|
Number of passenger cars per 1,000 residents |
190-220 |
520 |
Source: own elaboration
Aiming to improve the quality of public transport services and already
predicting the role of public transport as an alternative to the fast-growing
individual motorization, Gdynia’s authorities decided to decouple the functions
of the transport organization from the operator, as well as introduce
competition into transport services. The Public Transport Authority in Gdynia (ZKM Gdynia), an independent transport organizer, was
established. On the one hand, acting on behalf of the passengers as a buyer of
the services from the operators, it had to ensure quality of these services. On
the other hand, as a representative of the city authorities, it had to
rationalize the amount of budget subsidies to public transport in relation to
the quantity and quality of services.
These objectives assumed the break-up of transport organization, which
was then at the behest of one monopolistic operator. The main tasks of the
organizer of public transport became [1]:
• marketing research
• developing timetables
• ticket sales and control
• hiring operators, as well as the quantity and quality
control of the services provided
• supervision, regulation and control of
the movement of public transport vehicles
• maintenance of stops
• promotion of public transport
The basic advantages of breaking up transport organization among the
operators were as follows:
• by functioning as an organizer in terms
of a specialized unit, public transport could be managed using marketing
techniques
• the conditions for competition could be
created in public transport service provision
• the payment for services could be linked
with quantity and quality on the basis of specific contracts
• specialized control of quantity and
quality of services could be carried out
The action taken by the city authorities and ZKM
Gdynia created a foundation for implementation in the following years of the
policy of sustainable mobility in light of rapidly growing individual
motorization. Changes in the quantity and quality of services in Gdynia between
1992 and 2014 are presented in Table 2.
Table 2. Selected
characteristics of public transport in Gdynia in 1992 and 2014
|
Item |
1992 |
2014 |
|
Absence of service (%) |
4 |
0.02 |
|
Early departure above 3 min (%)* |
6 |
0.42 |
|
Late departure above 3 min (%)** |
10 |
17 |
|
Vehicle kilometre (vkm)
(m) |
15.2 |
19.1 |
|
Share of low-floor vehicles (%) |
0 |
100 |
* the early departure of the bus or trolleybus is a departure
that is at least 1 min ahead of schedule
** the increase in delays is a result of congestion
Source: own elaboration
Significant improvements to the quality of services and their adaptation
to residents’ preferences and behaviour were reflected in the service
assessments with passengers. The results of comprehensive marketing
research, carried out every two years in Gdynia, showed that the assessment of
public transport services by residents (on a scale from 2, i.e., the lowest, to
5, i.e., the highest) increased from 3.39 in 1994 to 4.21 in 2013.
Gdynia’s public transport system currently consists of a bus subsystem, a
trolleybus subsystem and an urban railway transport subsystem, namely, the Fast
Urban Railway (SKM) and the Pomeranian Metropolitan
Railway (PKM). ZKM Gdynia
organizes bus and trolleybus transportation. The Marshal of the Pomeranian Voivodeship is the organizer of the railway transportation
(SKM and PKM), which is
operated by Fast Urban Railway in Tri-City Ltd. The integration of ZKM and railway subsystems is executed through the ticket
tariff system (metropolitan ticket) and the coordination of timetables.
ZKM Gdynia uses 336 low-floor vehicles, including 230 buses (including 98
articulated), 86 trolleybuses and 20 minibuses on the public transport system.
The share of trolleybus transportation in vkm and
carriage of passengers is respectively 26 and 29%. The higher share of
trolleybus transportation in passenger carriages stems from the fact that
trolleybus routes go through downtown Gdynia. The location of trolleybuses
routes has become one of the determining factors of the trolleybus
transportation’s role in executing the policy of sustainable mobility.
The problem of rapidly increasing congestion made it necessary to take
action in the field of sustainable mobility, including the development of the
trolleybus network. The main activities, which determined the effective use of
trolleybuses as an instrument of sustainable mobility policy in Gdynia, became:
• the reorganization of the trolleybus
transportation operator
• the policy of renewing the fleet and
building the infrastructure, with the following objectives:
-
improvement in the quality
of trolleybus services, especially reliability, punctuality and comfort
-
technical and technological
development, enabling the use of batteries as an alternative to the supply
from overhead cables (catenary wire)
-
the use of expertise in
vehicle construction by the trolleybus transportation operator
• the operational, economical, financial
and ecological conditions of the development of trolleybus transportation in
Gdynia
4. Use
of trolleybuses as an instrument of sustainable mobility in Gdynia
The following are the features of the trolleybus, which are used to
promote it as an instrument of sustainable mobility [2]:
• it is environmentally friendly (it does
not emit exhaust fumes at the site of use, while it emits low-level noise in
comparison with other modes of transport)
• it is cost-effective in using renewable
energy sources
• it does not require large and long-term
investments due to very good technical solutions in the field of fleet and
infrastructure
• the price of the fleet and the running
costs will decrease, while its quality will increase with the rapid development
of trolleybus subsystems
• it has a longer service life and is more convenient for passengers
in comparison with the bus, as it offers more passenger space in the
vehicle and uses power, which is generated outside the vehicle
• it shows good traction qualities and
dynamics in motion, regardless of the topography and the occupancy of the
vehicle
• it is flexible on all types of routes,
with the option of an auxiliary drive
• it has the ability to store and recover
energy
• it ensures high productivity at high
capacity and operates in separate traffic corridors, which can produce a high
operating speed
• it is suitable from the point of view of
the requirements of the local community, as it ensures a balance between
transport capacity and the impact on the environment
These features determine the potential of trolleybuses as part of a
policy of sustainable mobility. The specific conditions of its operation in a
particular area will always determine its final performance.
In Gdynia, the starting point for action in the use of trolleybuses, as
an instrument of sustainable mobility, was the establishment of the trolleybus
service operator as a separate and independent economic entity. Provision of
bus and trolleybus services within a single company encouraged the operators to
shift the burden of costs related to inefficient economic decisions onto the
trolleybus transportation operation, which was characterized by a high
proportion of fixed costs[3]. The new operator,
established in 1998, as the Trolleybus Transport Company (PKT),
owned by the Municipality of Gdynia (the city has a 100% share in the company),
undertook actions in order to improve the quality of services.
As part of its strategy, the PKT proceeded with
the modernization of overhead cables and vehicles. Overhead cables were flawed
by outdated technical solutions (emergency substations, switches and crossings,
an exploited network, the poor condition of catenary poles, some of which were
from the 1940s). The vehicles (Gdynia’s trolleybus
transportation fleet in the early 1990s was based on
the Soviet trolleybus ZIU and the Polish Jelcz-Berliet) were also characterized by a high breakdown
rate and very low comfort, including the lack of low-floor spaces.
Outdated catenaries and fleet contributed to a lower quality of service
compared to that of bus transport (see 1998, Table 3).
Table 3. Comparison
of the quality of trolleybus and bus transport services in Gdynia
in 1998 and 2014
|
Year |
1998 |
|
2014 |
|
|
|
Type of transport |
Trolley |
Bus |
Trolley |
Bus |
|
|
Share of absence of service (%) |
0.35 |
0.18 |
0.03 |
0.01 |
|
|
Share of late departures, less than 3 min (%) |
18.5 |
21.96 |
28.11 |
28.82 |
|
|
Share of late departures, more than 3 min (%) |
6.8 |
10.66 |
19.71 |
15.21 |
|
|
Share of early departures (%) |
2.14 |
2.24 |
0.37 |
0.45 |
|
|
Share of mismarked/incomplete marked |
0.06 |
0.03 |
0.05 |
0.12 |
|
Source: own elaboration
Furthermore, in the opinion of the residents, the quality of trolleybus
transportation differed from that of the bus service. The lower quality
perceived by passengers and, consequently, the lower competitiveness of
trolleybus transportation limited the possibility of its use as an instrument
in sustainable mobility policy, and to some extent challenged the offer of ZKM Gdynia in terms of public transport. In this situation,
the organizer of transport, ZKM Gdynia, developed a
variant strategy jointly with the PKT for trolleybus
development, pointing to a variant of investment development as appropriate
from the point of view of achieving the objectives of sustainable mobility.
The EU-funded measures, implemented from 2004 to 2014, helped to improve
the perceived quality of trolleybus transportation services in Gdynia
(Fig. 1). They also enabled greater use of its potential in preparing the
strategy of sustainable mobility.
The investments significantly improved the assessment of trolleybus speed
and convenience. The fact that the trolleybuses in Gdynia are still perceived
by the people as slower than buses stems from the fact that trolleybus routes
run through the downtown area, which is much more vulnerable to congestion. At
the same time, the results of the study indicate that the inconvenience of
congestion in Gdynia has increased. This is indicated by a decrease in the
assessment of bus punctuality in 2013 compared to 1998, as well as a clear
increase in the share of delays in 2014 compared with 1998 (Table 3).
From the point of view of the promotion of trolleybuses as an element of
sustainable mobility, the residents’ attitude towards this means of transport
is important. Gdynia residents support the authorities’ actions regarding
trolleybuses and the adopted strategy of sustainable mobility. The results show
that 63% of the population want at least to maintain the present role of
trolleybuses in the city, while an additional 27% want spatial expansion (17%
in favour of creating new trolleybus lines and 10% in favour of replacing bus
lines with trolleybuses).
Fig. 1. Quality ratings of trolleybus and bus
services by the residents
of Gdynia in 1998 and 2013
Technological advances in the field of new energy sources present new
opportunities for trolleybus growth, including expansion plans. To a certain
degree, the use of the latest solutions of lithium-ion batteries frees
trolleybuses from catenaries by allowing more flexibility in planning
trolleybus routes and lines. In Gdynia, 47 trolleybuses are equipped with a
battery drive (treated initially as an emergency drive). An efficiency test of
the battery drive on one of the trolleybus lines (connecting the centre of
Gdynia with the resort of Sopot) was completed at the end of 2015. Its results
will determine the use of trolleybuses with a battery drive in serving
Gdynia’s districts and other cities in the future.
The cost of new vehicles for the many cities considering the introduction
or development of trolleybus transportation, especially outside the EU, is a
reason why they abandon the idea to implement any policy of sustainable
mobility using this mode of transport. The cost of a new rigid trolleybus
with a battery drive on the Polish market is about PLN 1.2-1.5 million (EUR
280-350,000). The price of A comparable bus is PLN 0.8-0.9 million (EUR
185-210,000). Before Poland joined the EU, in seeking alternative economic and
technical solutions, the PKT developed and
implemented the original technology of converting buses (especially used ones)
into trolleybuses. The process of reconstruction of the buses into trolleys
involves a number of steps, such as the removal of unnecessary components
(i.e., the internal combustion engine, gearbox, fuel tank etc.), the
adaptation of the engine compartment for electrical equipment, interior
restoration and strengthening of the vehicle roof, mounting of a pantograph and
electrical equipment on the vehicle roof and in the engine compartment,
electrical installation, and start-up and technical trials. The entire process
of reconstruction, depending on the vehicle type, takes between two and four
months. From the operational and functional point of view, trolleybuses
acquired through conversion do not differ significantly from purpose-built
vehicles. Between 2003 and 2013, the PKT acquired 32
vehicles from conversions, the cost of which was about 50% lower than for a new
vehicle. Currently, the PKT focuses on the purchase
of new vehicles, but the method developed in Gdynia can be successfully used in
other cities, which cannot, for various reasons, buy new trolleybuses.
The development of trolleybus transportation in Gdynia and its use as
part of a strategy of sustainable mobility are also affected by economic
calculation, which takes into account the cost of the trolleybus
transportation subsystem and external costs. The prime costs of trolleybus
transportation in Gdynia are relatively easy to analyse, due to the public
transport market organization in the city, where the organizer buys services
from different operators, which allows for easy identification on the basis of
unit costs (rates paid to carriers). In 2013, the cost of 1 vkm
of services from the PKT was higher than the average
for bus transport by 28 to 48%, depending on the contract with the bus operator.
The higher cost of trolleybuses in Gdynia results from:
• higher
fixed costs than for bus transportation (catenaries and substations)
• greater
cost of a trolleybus
The analyses of the effectiveness of trolleybus transportation as an
instrument for a sustainable development policy should also take into
account the external costs. In the manual (an e-book), compiled in
2013, which was devoted to the problems of operating and developing trolleybus
transportation, it states that a model of operational efficiency and the
development of trolleybus transportation ought to take into account the varying
“clean” quality levels when producing electricity, diesel prices and the number
of departures. Figure 2 shows the break-event point for trolleybuses when over
90% of their electricity is generated from coal, as it is in most Polish
cities.
The model of the trolleybus break-event point for Polish cities, taking
into account the alternative operation of the buses on a particular route,
is 250 departures per workday for trolleybus transportation. This figure should
be treated with caution, however, because the trolleybus transportation
network must be adapted to the distribution of demand sources, as well as meet
the transport needs in line with the transport preferences to which the carrier
offer must be subordinated. This means that some sections of routes, especially
those connecting residential areas or other sources of traffic with the main
streets in the city, can be characterized by lower values of the model.
Therefore, treating the break-event point, as shown in the model, as a
rigid boundary, delineating the routes of trolleybus transportation, would be a
misunderstanding. This would require ending trolleybus lines on main streets,
thereby forcing passengers to change to trains and buses to continue their
journey. Such an action would conflict with the marketing management of
the transport offer, along with the objectives of the policy of
sustainable mobility.
On a workday in Gdynia, at a cross-section along each main street,
trolleybuses perform between 240 (Wielkopolska St.)
and 440 (Morska St.) departures in each direction.
Between the access streets and the main streets in Gdynia, the number of
departures in each direction varies from 70 to 230, while there are 47
departures on the section from Sopot to Gdynia.
Fig. 2. Trolleybus break-event point (compared
with buses) [7]
4. Conclusion
In drawing a conclusion from the analysis presented in the paper, it can
be stated that an environmentally friendly urban public transport system
is one of the main ways in which to support sustainable urban development. The
example of Gdynia indicates that including trolleybus transportation in the
policy of sustainable mobility should involve comprehensive actions of
investment and organization, as well as management and marketing activities.
The implementation of new, “clean” and environmentally sound technologies,
through investment activities and the purchase of modern vehicles, is vital.
Creating conditions for the smooth and cost-effective operation of
overhead cables, including itemizing their costs, providing the desired image
to residents, and offering high-quality transport services, which identifying
specific transport demands, are also of equal importance.
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Received 02.03.2016;
accepted in revised form 07.07.2016
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