This saves designers and decision makers from a new round of automation.
Although The corona epidemic has severely hampered public transport in the Helsinki region, with one significant “good” effect on metro transport.
The proliferation of teleworking seems to be smoothing out metro congestion peaks to such an extent that the capacity of metro trains is no longer an acute problem.
Until two years ago, the City of Helsinki Transport Authority (HKL) predicted that the second metro automation project would have to be launched in 2023 at the latest, so that the congestion looming at the end of the decade could be tackled.
Read more: The Western Metro is going to be completely blocked in the next few years – a solution is being sought from expensive automation, which has already ended in landing
The idea of a new round of tendering at a time when system vendor Siemens and HKL were suing with claims for hundreds of millions of euros did not sound like a very inspiring solution.
“Now it seems that the capacity limits will not be met right away,” says the Helsinki Region Transport (HSL) group manager Johanna Wallin.
Wallinin supported by recent passenger statistics, which have leveled off the sharp peaks in the metro.
“It looks like congestion peaks will be about 15 percent lower than forecast. So this is the situation on weekdays. Leisure traffic is on the rise, and we are working on our own, ”says Wallin.
The situation has remained very similar throughout the corona epidemic. Many experts agree that even after a corona, a large proportion of employees work remotely about 2-3 days a week.
In that case, the metro operator will no longer have to prepare for peak periods that would have forced a significant increase in traffic in the next few years.
The peak peaks have been particularly sharp in the morning after 8 am in the direction of Helsinki city center. The peak of the afternoon has not been as sharp as people have traveled home from work for several hours.
Before The metro capacity study for the corona epidemic predicted that the situation in metro traffic would become particularly difficult when the Kivenlahti metro – the extension of the western metro – is completed in 2023.
According to traffic forecasts at the time, the section between Urheilupuisto and Tapiola would already have 7,958 passengers during peak hours by the end of the 2020s.
In the driver’s metro, the absolute upper limit for the number of passengers is 7,224 passengers per hour when trains run every five minutes. In Tapiola, congestion is easier because it is served by another metro line.
“The current situation gives us a lot more time to prepare. The leveling off of peak periods will make it possible to create cost-effective solutions, ”says Wallin.
Presently HSL, HKL and Länsimetro oy are drawing up a project plan aimed at guaranteeing the metro’s operational capacity until 2060.
Hired as a project manager Heikki Viika points out that the electronics of the Helsinki metro are partly 40 years old.
“The project plan includes a work list for the renovation of older parts of the metro. These costs are approaching EUR 100 million, ”says Viika.
In order to prevent congestion in the metro, ways have also been tried to control passenger flows at stations. A solution was tried for the metro station of the railway station, where stickers glued to the pier instructed people to let the passengers leaving the metro out before the new passengers got on the car.
According to Viikka, the experiment in early November resulted in moderate schedule savings.
Metron the pace at which new homes and jobs are built will have a decisive impact on future passenger numbers. To date, Espoo has condensed near the metro line even faster than anticipated in the agreement on land use, housing and transport (mal).
The metro line is also planned to be extended from Kivenlahti to the west to Kirkkonummi or north to Kauklahti.
CEO of Länsimetro Villa Saxony according to which no further plans have been made.
“We have built the Kivenlahti station in such a way that it is technically possible to continue the metro line if we want to do so sometime in the future,” says Saksi.
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