Logistyka 4/2014
2731Zofia Bryniarska1
Cracow University of Technology
Accessibility and performance outputs of night urban
public transport service in Krakow
Introduction
Transportation accessibility of areas is treated as one of the strategic targets in documents formulated at all management levels: national, province and local. Moreover, there is a principle of satisfying the collective needs of citizens and performing in the area of its delegation the public tasks of local importance, including those related to the maintenance of municipal roads, streets, bridges, squares, traffic organization and local public transport services. It is emphasized that transport accessibility helps increase the attractiveness and competitiveness of urban areas and affects the life quality of citizens. Although the improvement of transport accessibility may be achieved through the development of the urban transport system available for different means of transport, the activities most effective from the perspective of residents are focused on the development of public transport services and the improvement of the standard of public transport services.
Transportation accessibility is one of the characteristics of public transport service quality and it is defined by various authors in terms of spatial, time, functional, demographic, economic and tariff categories [5 pp. 37-43, 195-198, 3, pp. 69-81]. It is most often identified as an opportunity and easiness to approach some targets in the specified spatial area. This opportunity and easiness with regard to public transport services in cities are associated with the offering of transport services to inhabitants in order to allow them to move between any two starting points and destinations within the city area at a time convenient for them.
Accessibility is currently a subject of many studies and it is perceived as a problem of higher level than just solving mobility issues related only to movement and traffic or to transport system efficiency. The considerations on accessibility stress the people’s need to travel and the opportunities to satisfy their demand for travelling. Accessibility is the main object of interest, research, investigation and discussions undertaken in the COST Action TU1002. In this project, activity is focused on defining the tools and instruments that could help to assess accessibility in practical applications within land use planning and transport development in cities. In the article, the considerations and methods of assessment and quantification of the public transport system accessibility in selected cities and instruments proposed by the Polish team within the frame of the COST Action TU1002 have been developed and used in relation to night public transport services in Krakow.
For the residents of cities and urban areas, the accessibility of their destinations associated with commuting to the places of work, education and science is the most important factor. These trips are taken for obligatory purposes and they are usually performed in the daytime. But in large cities such as Krakow, a lot of people
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work in the late evening or night hours, or they commute to work in the early morning hours, or they just travel to the places of recreation, culture or refreshment, or to meet their families or friends. The accessibility of public transport services operating at night is of high importance to this group of citizens.
Spatial, time, functional and economic accessibility of night transport in Krakow will be presented in the article. The implementation of transport on individual night lines on working days and at weekends (Friday nights and Saturday nights) based on measurements of the number of passenger in vehicles carried out in April 2013 as well as the comparison to the volume of transportation tasks at night in 2007 have also been described.
Night transport accessibility in Krakow
Organisation of night transport services
Since September 2013, night public transport services have been carried out by two tram lines and by 8 bus lines on working days and 12 bus lines at weekends. The night urban lines are marked with numbers starting with the digit "6", and the lines passing to the suburban zone have numbers starting with the digit "9". The tram lines are marked with two digits and bus lines with three digits. The routes of tram lines extend from the east to the west and from the north towards to the south of the city and meet in the city centre at the Dworzec Glowny tram/bus stop. The majority of night bus lines operate as the cross-city (diametrical) lines that pass through the bus/tram stops Dworzec Glowny and Dworzec Glowny Zachod to allow passengers to change from one line to another. This way, travellers can freely combine trips by different lines. Almost all night lines provide the residents of Krakow with possibilities of transfer to and from major residential estates and directions to the city centre. Two supplementary lines (No 637 and No 643) that have timetables coordinated with cross-city lines allow for the extension of the night line routes to suburban housing estates. In addition, some bus routes go beyond the administrative boundaries of the city. The line No 902 provides a connection to the International Airport in Balice and the line No 904 goes to the Wieliczka Salt Mine on all nights of the week. Moreover, the lines No 903 and No 915 run only on weekend nights and provide access to Skawina and Swiatniki, respectively.
The characteristics of individual night public transport lines have been presented in Table 1.
The length of night tram lines is approximately 13-14 km and they are supported on all days of the week with the same frequency of 30 minutes. The routes of bus lines are longer than those of tram lines and they connect peripheral estates in Krakow and Nowa Huta: from Borek Fałęcki and Maki Czerwone tram/bus stops to Aleja Przyjazni and Zajezdnia Bienczyce bus stops. The length of these routes exceeds 26 km. The supplementary bus lines are the shortest night lines and they allow for connecting the last tram/bus stops: Krowodrza Górka and Dworzec Plaszow to the Kuznica Kollatajowska housing estate and the Zlocien housing estate. The night buses ride every hour on a typical working day. However, at weekends three night
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Tab. 1. Characteristics of night public transport lines in Krakow
Number of rides No Line number Route Length of the route [km] on working day nights on Friday nights on Saturday nights
1 64 Bronowice Male - Plac Centralny 13.2 9.5 9.5 9.5
2 69 Krowodrza Gorka - Nowy Biezanow 14.1 10.0 10.0 10.0
3 601 Mydlniki - Czyzyny Dworzec 19.6 5.5 5.5 5.5
4 605 Zajezdnia Plaszow - Bielany 8.3 5.0 5.0 5.0
5 608 Borek Falecki - Aleja Przyjazni 28.4 6.0 8.0 8.0
6 609 Zajezdnia Bienczyce - Czerwone Maki 26.8 5.0 5.0 5.0
7 610 Pradnik Czerwony - Os. Kurdwanow 15.7 5.5 9.5 9.5
8 618 Aleja Przyjaźni - Dworzec Główny 14.8 - 4.0 4.0
9 637 Krowodrza Gorka - Kuznicy Kollatajowskiej 3.6 5.0 10.0 10.0
10 643 Dworzec Plaszow - Zlocien 7.5 3.0 3.0
11 902 Dworzec Glowny Wschod - Krakow Airport T1 14.0 6.0 6.0 6.0
12 903 Czerwone Maki - Skawina 8.0 - 2.0 2.0
13 904 Pradnik Bialy - Wieliczka 25.8 5.0 5.0 5.0
14 915 Lagiewniki - Swiatniki Cmentarz 16.4 1.0 1.0
Source: author’s analysis based on [4]
The capacity of bus and tram vehicles on night lines is adjusted to the existing passenger flows. The tramway cars of Bombardier NGT6 and EU8N types with a capacity equal to 205 and 208 persons respectively operate on tram lines on every week day. The characteristics of nominal vehicle capacity operating on night lines have been presented in Table 2.
Tab. 2. Characteristics of vehicle capacity operating on night lines
Nominal capacity of buses and trams
No Line number
on working day nights on Friday nights on Saturday nights
1 64 208 208 208 2 69 205 205 205 3 601 174 174 174 4 605 102 174 174 5 608 174-180 165-174 174-180 6 609 95-102 165-174 174 7 610 95 174-180 174-180 8 618 - 165-174 174-180 9 637 45 45 45 10 643 - 60 60 11 902 102 102 102 12 903 - 102 102 13 904 95-102 174-180 174-180 14 915 - 95 95
Source: author’s analysis based on [4]
The situation on bus lines is much more complex. There are bus lines where standard buses of a nominal capacity of about 100 persons are used on typical working days and the buses of a capacity of about 165 to 180 persons on weekend nights. But there are also bus lines, namely lines No 601 and 609, where articulated
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buses are used all week long and the bus lines where standard buses operate (line No 902) and the supplementary bus lines where it is enough to use midi buses (lines No 637 and 643). In contrast, on No 605, 609, 610 and 904 lines, standard buses are used on working day nights and articulated buses on weekend nights.
Spatial accessibility
Spatial accessibility of night public transport services in Krakow is closely related to the routes of tram and bus lines. The routes of night buses and trams do not overlap in principle, and only in the city center are there one or two intentionally planned tram/bus stops to facilitate changing the tram/bus lines by passengers. To assess spatial accessibility, the geographical density coefficients are used [3 pp. 70-74, 4 p. 140] in which the elements of the public transport infrastructure (road length or the number of bus/tram stops in the transport system) are related to the surface of the area that is served by means of public transport.
For the purpose of determining spatial accessibility, both in the daytime and night-time, in the framework of the COST Action TU1002, the area of Krakow has been divided into 60 communication subareas, which include the locations of residential estates served by public transport. Based on this division, the assessment of accessibility coefficients has been carried out. The basic measures and coefficients that determine the spatial accessibility of the city at night have been shown in Table 3.
Tab. 3. Measures and coefficients of spatial accessibility for night public transport services
Working day night Weekend night
Measure / coefficient for subareas
with night public transport services for the network for the bus/tram stops for the network for the bus/tram stops
Number of subareas 30 38
Area [km2] 127.13 166.63
Structure ratio [%] 48.48 63.54
Length of routes / number of bus/tram
stops 141.13 [km] 254 166.45 [km] 297
Density ratio: length of the network or number of stops per one km2 of the city area Mean for the subareas with night
public transport service
1.11 [km/km2] 1.99 [stops/km2] 0.99 [km/km2] 1.78 [stops/km2] Source: author’s analysis
The routes of bus and tram lines operated at night are not set by all communication subareas in Krakow. During a working day night, they run through 30 subareas with the highest population density; during a weekend night they get to additional eight subareas. The total area of communication subareas that are served by trams or buses at night reaches almost 50% of the city area on working day nights, and 63% on weekend nights.
The assessment of spatial accessibility, understood as the ease to get connections offered by public transport, can also be performed based on the length of line routes and the number of tram/bus stops that allow passengers to start or finish their trips. The length of transport routes is approximately 166 km, with the
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2735number of stops amounting to 297 on weekend nights. Both the length of routes and the number of stops are about 18% higher than on working day nights. 1.11 km of the bus and tram network route and nearly 2 bus/tram stops fall per every square kilometer of communication subarea served by night public transport on a working day. The extension of public transport service during weekend nights with additional 8 subareas that are more distant from the city center means that the average length of routes per each square kilometer of communication subarea drops to 0.99 [km/km2], and the number of tram/bus stops – to 1.78 [stops/km2].
The coefficients of spatial accessibility, both for the tram/bus network and for the tram/bus stops, obtain different values for every communication subarea in Krakow. The distribution of spatial accessibility coefficients for the network and the tram/bus stops in communication subareas served by night public transport has been presented in Table 4 and for the tram/bus network on weekend nights in Figure 1.
Fig. 1.Spatial accessibility of transport infrastructure in communication subareas served by night public transport at the weekend
Tab. 4. Structure of subareas in terms of spatial accessibility
For the tram/bus network For the tram/bus stops
range [km/km2] working day night weekend night range [stops/km2]
working day night weekend night 1.8 – 3.3 6 7 3.5 – 5.0 2 3 1.3 – 1.8 4 5 2.1 – 3.5 12 15 0.9 – 1.3 10 11 1.4 – 2.1 11 10 0.7 – 0.9 7 9 0.7 – 1.4 4 5 0.1 – 0.7 3 6 0.1 – 0.7 1 5
Source: author’s analysis
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subareas on working day nights and weekend nights , respectively) ranges from 0.9 to 1.3 km of bus/tram routes per square kilometer of communication subarea space. The accessibility of bus/tram stops in 40% of subareas on working day nights and at weekends is from 2.1 to 3.5 tram/bus stops per every square kilometer of communication subarea.
Demographic accessibility
Demographic accessibility allows for evaluating the transportation accessibility by assigning to the subareas the average number of residents who can benefit from night public transport services [3 pp. 70, 74, 4 p. 140]. The coefficient of demographic accessibility is a density coefficient in which the length of night tram/bus line routes is divided by the number of inhabitants living in a communication subarea that is supported by means of night public transport. The basic measures and indicators determining the demographic accessibility of Krakow at night, using the division of the city into 60 communication subareas, have been shown in Table 5.
Tab. 5. Measures and coefficients of demographic accessibility for night public transport services
Working day night Weekend night
Measure / coefficient for subareas
with night public transport services for the network for bus/tram stops for the network for bus/tram stops
Number of subareas 30 38
Population 657 666 690 652
Structure ratio [%] 90.94 95.50
Length of routes / number of bus/tram
stops 141.13 [km] 254 166.45 [km] 297
Density ratio: length of the network or number of stops per 10 000 inhabitants Mean for the subareas with night
public transport service
2.15 [km/10 000 inhabitants] 3.86 [stops/10000 inhabitants] 2.41 [km/10 000 inhabitants] 4.30 [stops/10000 inhabitants] Source: author’s analysis
More than 90% of the population of Krakow live in communication subareas served by means of night public transport on working days. At weekends, night public transport services are extended to further 8 communication subareas (without the suburban area), and the share of residents who live in subareas with access to night public transport increases to 95%. Such a high proportion of the population who have a possibility and relative ease of approach to or from the tram/bus stop served by night public transport and to travel by means of public transport confirm that the routes of lines are well-planned and adjusted to passengers’ needs.
The average demographic accessibility for all communication subareas and related to the length of line routes equals 2.15 km on working day night and 2.41 km per 10 000 inhabitants on weekend night. Analogically, the average demographic accessibility related to bus/tram stops amounts to 3.86 on working day night and on weekend nights it is slightly higher, amounting to 4.3 stops per 10 000 inhabitants.
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2737distribution of the structure ratio, both for the transport network and tram/bus stops, has been presented in Table 6, and for the transport network on a working day night also in Figure 2.
Fig. 2. Demographic accessibility of linear transport infrastructure in communication subareas served by public transport on working day nights
Tab. 6. Structure of subareas in terms of demographic accessibility
For the tram/bus network For the tram/bus stops
range [km/10000 persons] working day night weekend night range [stops/10000 persons] working day night weekend night 8 - 47 3 5 18 - 51 2 4 4 - 8 3 5 8 - 18 3 4 2 - 4 13 15 4 - 8 10 15 1 - 2 8 9 3- 4 9 8 0.8 - 1 3 4 1.7 - 3 6 7
Source: author’s analysis
The largest number of communication subareas is characterised by demographic accessibility of the transport network ranging from 2 to 4 km per 10 000 inhabitants. They constitute more than 30% of communication subareas with night public transport both on working days and at weekends. The value of demographic accessibility in terms of tram/bus stops per 10 000 inhabitants that equals 4 to 8 tram/bus stops per 10 000 inhabitants has been estimated for 10 communication subareas on working day night and for 15 communication subareas during the weekend nights.
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Time accessibility
The time accessibility of night public transport services means that a passenger can take a trip thanks to the departures planned in the timetable of individual lines, the frequency and the number of rides at night. In Krakow, the majority of night tram and bus rides occur between 11 pm to 5 am, i.e. after the end of the day line service. The period and the frequency of operation of each night line are shown in Table 7.
Tab. 7. Characteristics of night line frequency
Period of operation at night Frequency of rides at night [min] No Line number
working day weekend working day weekend
1 64 11:33 p.m. – 4:53 a.m. 11:33 p.m. – 4:53 a.m. 30 30 2 69 11:21 p.m. – 4:40 a.m. 11:21 p.m. – 4:40 a.m. 30 30 3 601 11:30 p.m. – 5:26 a.m. 11:30 p.m. – 5:24 a.m. 60 60 4 605 11:30 p.m. – 4:17 a.m. 11:32 p.m. – 4:26 a.m. 60 60 5 608 11:20 p.m. – 5:04 a.m. 11:20 p.m. – 5:03 a.m. 60 60 6 609 11:17 p.m. – 4:37 a.m. 11:17 p.m. – 4:37 a.m. 60 60 7 610 11:30 p.m. – 5:27 a.m. 11:30 p.m. – 5:27 a.m. 60 30 8 618 - 11:48 p.m. – 3:22 a.m. - 60 9 637 11:29 p.m. – 3:39 a.m. 11:19 p.m. – 4:09 a.m. 60 30 10 643 - 12:30 p.m. – 3:20 a.m. - 60 11 902 11:25 p.m. – 4:43 a.m. 11:25 p.m. – 4:39 a.m. 60 60 12 903 - 12:35 p.m. –2:24 a.m. - 60 13 904 11:10 p.m. – 4:44 a.m. 11:10 p.m. – 4:44 a.m. 60 60
14 915 - 1:25 a.m.– 2:32 a.m. - 1 ride
Source: author’s analysis
Night tramway lines of elementary importance to passenger transport run every 30 minutes, regardless of the day of the week, whereas all bus lines on working days and most of the bus lines at weekends are scheduled approximately once an hour. Two night bus lines (No 610 and 637) have an increased frequency of up to 30 minutes at the weekend. Moreover, the bus line No 618, which runs only during the weekend nights, can be treated as a line that has an impact on increased frequency of line No 601, because their routes overlap on a long section.
Functional accessibility
Functional accessibility is typically defined by a set of sub-criteria. The ones most important for passengers include the following: linking urban public transport with other means of public transport and individual transport as well as convenience of changes from a private car or bike to the means of public transport, comprehensiveness and form of information provided to passengers, the timetable and its readability as well as the offer of public transport services.
The organizational solutions applied when planning timetables and drawing the routes of public transport lines operating at night assume that all city lines (tram and bus lines) have one common tram/bus stop located in the city center. Moreover, the timetables of all city lines are arranged in such a way that their vehicles meet
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2739at this tram/bus stop at sharp hours, and the lines of increased frequency (running every 30 minutes) additionally meet at half-hours. The role of a common bus stop is played by the Dworzec Glowny bus/tram stop. On the one hand, it is located on the edge of the Planty park, which is close to the Old Town; on the other hand, it lies next to the railway station and the bus station (long-distance and regional buses). This gives passengers a chance of not only convenient change between the lines of urban public transport, but also makes it possible for them to transfer to regional, national and international bus and railway services, and to access the International Airport in Balice.
The organized form of changing from private cars to means of public transport combined with leaving a car in the "Park &Ride" parking lot is currently possible in Krakow at only one tram/bus last stop – Czerwone Maki. However, one can see that car drivers very often leave their vehicles parked on the streets, close to other tram/bus last stops that are convenient for change and continue their journey by tram or bus city lines.
Any information provided to passengers is constantly expanded and upgraded. Information is commonly presented not only in printed form at bus stops, but it is also available on the websites of urban public transport companies and the municipal transport operator. Thanks to mobile and smartphone applications, the further increase of its accessibility to passengers has been obtained. One can also benefit from travel planners that suggest which lines should be taken and at what time one should start moving to the selected destination to arrive there at the desired time.
The timetable of night lines is easy to remember due to constant frequency of running: every 60 or 30 minutes. In addition, the timetables of night lines are coordinated so as to enable changes between the cross-city lines at Dworzec Glowny tram/bus stop or between the cross-cross-city lines and supplementary ones at the last stops such as Krowodrza Gorka, Dworcowa, Czewone Maki and Lagiewniki.
The accessibility in terms of public transport service offer, that is particularly important for passengers travelling at night, concerns the capacity of vehicles and facilities for people with disabilities. Every tramway car used in Krakow to carry passengers at night has a low-floor segment. The majority of buses are low-floor vehicles, or at least low-entry ones. The coefficients describing bus and tram capacity in relation to the vehicles’ nominal capacity have been presented in Table 8.
The average use of seats in tramway cars on working day nights is around 10 %, while at weekend nights it is higher and amounts to 17.5 % on Friday night and 19.3 % on Saturday night. The average use of bus seats on all days ranges from 12 to 13 %. The vehicles being filled in less than 10 % of the nominal capacity is the rate most frequently observed (40-50 % of cases). This means that all passengers can take seats. The share of cases when the number of passengers in the vehicle exceeds 50 % of its nominal capacity on a working day night amounts to 2.3 %, on Friday night – 4.4 %, and on Saturday night – 2.9 % of cases. It was on two occasions that buses were recorded to be filled beyond their nominal capacity: on Friday night on two rides of line No 601, in the first case along 7 and in the latter case along 11 sections between bus stops.
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There were also noted cases in which there were no passengers on the bus running between bus stops, with these “empty” sections accounting on each day for 6.8 to 7.8% of inter-stop sections.
Tab. 8. Distribution of vehicles’ capacity usage in night public transport
Coefficient of nominal capacity usage [%] Range of nominal capacity usage for a vehicle at the
section between two tram/bus stops [%]
on a working day
night on Friday night on Saturday night
(120 – 130] 0.00 0.13 0.00 (110 – 120] 0.00 0.09 0.00 (100 – 110] 0.00 0.17 0.00 (90 – 100] 0.05 0.17 0.00 (80 – 90] 0.08 0.24 0.24 (70 – 80] 0.38 0.74 0.28 (60 – 70] 0.89 1.10 0.74 (50 – 60] 0.94 1.82 1.69 (40 – 50] 2.20 3.20 4.69 (30 – 40] 5.26 6.75 8.15 (20 – 30] 7.65 11.94 12.85 (10 – 20] 21.32 22.49 22.12 (0 – 10] 53.42 43.97 42.45 0 7.81 7.22 6.79 Total number 3 725 4 624 4 624
Source: author’s analysis
Economic and tariff accessibility
The fare and tariff solutions for travelling by means of night public transport have been the same as during the day since 2008. In particular, one can use a ticket for one person: a single fare or a time-limit ticket, group tickets: single fare, family weekend and long-term tickets. All the tickets are also valid for travels at night.
Single fare tickets (PLN 3.80) entitle you to a single ride on a route of any length. Time-limit tickets allow you to change your public transport vehicle, but the period from validation of the ticket to the completion of the journey must not exceed: 20 minutes (PLN 2.80), 40 minutes (PLN 3.80), 60 minutes (PLN 5.00), 90 minutes (PLN 6.00), 24 hours (PLN 15.00), 48 hours (PLN 24.00), 72 hours (PLN 36.00), 7 days (PLN 48.00). A single group ticket entitles a group consisting of up to 20 people to travel without changing a vehicle at the price of PLN 36.00. A family weekend ticket allows members of a family to take an unlimited number of journeys from Saturday to Sunday. The family can be contractually composed of one or two adults and at least one child under the age of 16.
The long-term personal ticket for one, two or all lines within the public transport system in the city entitles you to many journeys with an unlimited number of changes made during its validity period. The validity period can vary from one month to 12 months. The bearer, semester, social and motivating tickets are valid for any tram and bus line.
Persons entitled to municipal or state relief can purchase discount tickets.
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2741Magnitude of transportation tasks carried out in 2013
The implementation of transportation tasks of each night line depends on the route of the line through the city and the attractiveness of places where passengers can begin or finish their journeys at night. The information on the number of passengers conveyed by vehicles of each night line has been presented in Table 9.
Tab. 9. Attractiveness of night lines
Working day night Friday night Saturday night
Number of passengers on a ride Number of passengers on a ride Number of passengers on a ride Line number Number of
passengers carried Share [%] average maximal Number of passengers carried Share [%] average maximal Number of passengers carried Share [%] average maximal 64 1 698 22.70 89.4 221 2 605 19.19 137.1 227 2 886 20.65 151.9 279 69 1 267 16.94 63.4 165 2 321 17.10 116.1 199 2 397 17.15 119.9 171 601 1 059 14.16 96.3 207 1 971 14.52 179.2 323 1 511 10.81 137.4 230 605 234 3.13 23.4 51 480 3.54 48.0 81 527 3.77 52.7 86 608 1 082 14.47 90.2 165 1 972 14.53 123.3 244 1 756 12.57 109.8 197 609 725 9.69 72.5 120 1 303 9.60 130.3 198 1 707 12.22 170.7 238 610 611 8.17 55.5 114 1 278 9.42 67.3 127 1 294 9.26 68.1 107 618 - - - - 93 0.69 23.3 39 118 0.84 29.5 47 637 94 1.26 9.4 23 196 1.44 9.8 32 175 1.25 8.8 20 643 - - - - 39 0.29 6.5 15 29 0.21 4.8 14 902 143 1.91 11.9 25 366 2.70 30.5 41 275 1.97 22.9 47 903 - - - - 30 0.22 7.5 11 18 0.13 4.5 9 904 567 7.58 56.7 138 882 6.50 88.2 117 1 260 9.02 126.0 165 915 - - - - 36 0.27 18.0 22 20 0.14 10.0 20 Total /average/max 7 480 100.00 59.8 221 13 572 100.00 81.3 323 13 973 100.00 83.7 279
Source: author’s analysis
The largest number of passengers are transported by trams at night on each weekday. The share of passengers of two tram lines in the total number of night passengers on a working day amounts to more than 39 %, and on Friday night and Saturday night it is lower by 3% and 2%, respectively. About 14 % of passengers use each of the two cross-city lines No 601 and No 608 on any working day. On Friday nights , the share of passengers travelling by the lines No 601 and No 608 remains the same as on a working day. About 10% of passengers use each of the cross-city lines No 608 and No 609. Additionally, passengers also willingly choose line No 904 on Saturday night. The lines with the greatest share in the number of passengers carried at night on working days transport about 90 people on each ride. On weekend nights, 116 to 170 people travel by these lines on average. The maximum number of passengers on one ride (323 people) traveled by the bus No 601 on Friday nights.
The total number of passengers carried by night lines on weekend nights is over 80% higher than on working day nights.
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Comparison of transportation tasks carried out in 2007 and 2013
After the year 2007, when the last full study on the number of passengers in night line vehicles was carried out, many changes have been introduced, not only in the organization of the night public transport services but also in the routes of lines and the fares as well. In 2007, night transport was carried out only by buses. Night trams have not returned to Krakow until September 2012, after 26 years. In 2008 the bus routes have been changed so that the rides of most lines would run through the Dworzec Glowny stop and would meet at this tram/bus stop at the same hours. The principle of double fare for a single ticket at night has been cancelled.
The volume of transportation tasks in terms of vehicle-kilometers, vehicle-hours, passenger-kilometers and the number of passengers carried by night lines in 2007 and 2013 have been summarized in Table 10.
Tab. 10. Characteristics of transportation work in night public transport service in Krakow in 2007 and in 2013
Night public transport in 2007
Night public transport in 2013
Ratio of public transport service in 2013 to 2007 [%] Parameter Working day night Friday night Saturday night Working day night Friday night Saturday t night Working day night Friday night Saturday night Number of lines 8 8 8 10 14 14 125.0 175.0 175.0 Number of rides 34.5 46 46 62.5 83.5 83.5 181.2 181.5 181.5 Number of vehicle-kilometres 1423.2 1822.9 1839.3 2057.0 2492.4 2492.4 144.5 136.7 135.5 Number of vehicle-hours 57.8 74.5 74.9 97.9 119.4 118.9 169.3 160.3 158.7 Number of passengers 3764 7176 6708 7 480 13 572 13 973 198.7 189.1 208.3 Number of passenger-kilometres 23382.3 42126.8 40287.1 34614.4 66079.0 67991.5 148.0 156.9 168.8 Productivity coefficient [pas/vehicle-kilometres] 2.6 3.9 3.6 3.64 5.4 5.6 139.9 138.3 153.7
Source: author’s analysis
The offer of night public transport has been tailored to the needs of passengers. The number of lines has increased by 2 on every working day and by 6 on weekend days. The number of line rides has been raised by 81% on every day of the week. The routes of lines have been redefined and it has resulted in almost doubling of the number of passengers using any night line as compared to 2007. The number of passengers carried has risen by 99% on working day nights, by 89% on Friday night, and by 108% on Saturday night. The transport performance in terms of vehicle-kilometers, vehicle-hours and passenger-kilometers has increased by almost a half in this period. The productivity coefficient that expresses the ratio of the number of passengers to the number of vehicle-kilometers traveled by vehicles has improved by 40-53%.
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2743Conclusions
Night public transport in Krakow is not equally available throughout the entire area lying within the administrative boundaries of the city. The spatial and demographic accessibility depend on the length of routes, the number of stops, their location within the city, the area and number of inhabitants living in the area served by public transport. The routes of night bus or tram lines run through 30 communication sub-areas on working days and through 38 of 60 communication sub-areas designated in the city at weekends. However, on working days the surface of these communication sub-areas covers only 50% of the total city area, but they are inhabited by more than 90% of the city population. On weekend nights, public transport lines run through 38 communication sub-areas that together represent more than 63% of the total city area and more than 95% of the population of Krakow live in their area.
The time accessibility of public transport services depends on the period of its availability and departure frequency. In Krakow, means of public transport operate every night from 11:00 pm to 5:00 am. Vehicles of nearly every bus line run every 60 minutes and trams leave every 30 minutes. The frequency of selected bus lines, which are important for passengers, is doubled on weekend nights.
An important element of the functional accessibility of night lines is the design and planning of their routes in such a way that all cross-city lines meet at the same hours at the common tram/bus stop (Dworzec Glowny) and that timetables of supplementary lines are communicated with schedules of cross-city lines to facilitate changing lines by passengers.
Tram lines are essential for night travels within the city area by the Krakow residents. Two tram lines carry 36-39% of all passengers travelling at night. The changes in the organization and planning of night line routes, increasing the spatial, time, functional and fare/tariff accessibility contributed to an increase in the number of passengers carried by means of night public transport by 80% in comparison to 2007. The accessibility of night public transport services is one of the significant elements that, on the one hand, increase the inhabitants’ trust in public transport and, on the other hand, affect the positive assessment of the quality of public transport services and change in inhabitants’ daily travel habits towards the abandonment of the use of private cars.
Abstract
In big cities, such as Krakow, that are important economic and academic centres, urban public transport plays an essential role which is not to be overestimated. During the day, it integrates the areas of various economic nature and allows their inhabitants to commute to their obligatory destinations, but also enables them to travel by night and in this way increases the attractiveness of the city and the quality of life of its inhabitants.
The night public transport system has quite a long tradition in Krakow. Permanent observations of the number of passengers using night public transport lines have been carried out for the last few years. They
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allow for making decisions to adjust not only the routes of night lines and their frequency but also to coordinate their timetables, size and comfort of vehicles operating on those lines to the expectations of passengers travelling by night.
The organisation of night line services, spatial, time, functional, economic and tariff accessibility of public transport at night and the characteristics of performed tasks will be presented based on observations carried out in spring 2013. The organization of public transport and the number of passengers carried at night will be compared to the similar results obtained in 2007.
Dost
ę
pno
ść
i wyniki funkcjonowania komunikacji nocnej
w Krakowie
Streszczenie
W dużych miastach takich jak Kraków, będących dużymi ośrodkami gospodarczymi i akademickimi, publiczny transport zbiorowy odgrywa szczególną, nie do przecenienia, rolę. W okresie dziennym integruje obszary o różnym charakterze wykorzystania i umożliwia przemieszczanie mieszkańców, szczególnie w celach obligatoryjnych, ale również w okresie nocnym pozwala na wykonywanie podróży i zwiększa atrakcyjność miasta i jakośćżycia mieszkańców.
W Krakowie komunikacja nocna ma długą tradycję. W ostatnich latach prowadzone są stałe obserwacje liczby pasażerów korzystających z pojazdów publicznego transportu zbiorowego w okresie nocnym i podejmowane są działania w kierunku lepszego dostosowania zarówno przebiegu tras linii nocnych, częstotliwości ich kursowania, koordynacji rozkładów jazdy poszczególnych linii oraz wielkości i komfortu pojazdów obsługujących te linie do oczekiwań pasażerów.
W artykule zostanie przedstawiona organizacja linii nocnych, dostępność przestrzenna, czasowa, funkcjonalna ekonomiczna i taryfowa oraz charakterystyka realizacji zadań przewozowych komunikacji nocnej w Krakowie na podstawie obserwacji przeprowadzonych wiosną 2013 roku. Organizacja komunikacji nocnej oraz wielkość obecnie wykonywanych zadań przewozowych zostaną porównane do wyników z 2007 roku.
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