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Bybanen Bergen light rail: Some important lessons learned when planning a new light-rail system

Posted: 25 June 2012 | Thomas J. Potter, Senior Transportation Engineer, Norconsult AS | No comments yet

Bergen is Norway’s second largest city with a regional population of 350,000. In March 2000, and after more than 10 years of heated political and public discussion, a decision was made to build the city a new light-rail system. In 2006, the Norwegian Parliament approved the innovative financing package based largely on revenues from the toll ring around the city and the alternative use of highway funds.

The first 10km section of the system was opened in June 2010, and with passenger ridership figures 50% above expectations, it has proved to be a great success. A 4km extension to Lagunen is now under construction and will open in 2013. In order to cope with higher than expected ridership numbers, an additional eight 32m-long Variobahn vehicles from Stadler Pankow GmbH have been ordered. These additional vehicles will allow an intense service to be operated with four minute headways during the busiest periods of the day, for approximately seven hours.

A further 7km extension to Bergen Airport at Flesland, along with a major workshop/depot near the airport, are now in a design phase and both are scheduled to open in 2016 in close coordination with a major expansion of the airport terminal.

Bergen is Norway’s second largest city with a regional population of 350,000. In March 2000, and after more than 10 years of heated political and public discussion, a decision was made to build the city a new light-rail system. In 2006, the Norwegian Parliament approved the innovative financing package based largely on revenues from the toll ring around the city and the alternative use of highway funds. The first 10km section of the system was opened in June 2010, and with passenger ridership figures 50% above expectations, it has proved to be a great success. A 4km extension to Lagunen is now under construction and will open in 2013. In order to cope with higher than expected ridership numbers, an additional eight 32m-long Variobahn vehicles from Stadler Pankow GmbH have been ordered. These additional vehicles will allow an intense service to be operated with four minute headways during the busiest periods of the day, for approximately seven hours. A further 7km extension to Bergen Airport at Flesland, along with a major workshop/depot near the airport, are now in a design phase and both are scheduled to open in 2016 in close coordination with a major expansion of the airport terminal.

Bergen is Norway’s second largest city with a regional population of 350,000. In March 2000, and after more than 10 years of heated political and public discussion, a decision was made to build the city a new light-rail system. In 2006, the Norwegian Parliament approved the innovative financing package based largely on revenues from the toll ring around the city and the alternative use of highway funds.

The first 10km section of the system was opened in June 2010, and with passenger ridership figures 50% above expectations, it has proved to be a great success. A 4km extension to Lagunen is now under construction and will open in 2013. In order to cope with higher than expected ridership numbers, an additional eight 32m-long Variobahn vehicles from Stadler Pankow GmbH have been ordered. These additional vehicles will allow an intense service to be operated with four minute headways during the busiest periods of the day, for approximately seven hours.

A further 7km extension to Bergen Airport at Flesland, along with a major workshop/depot near the airport, are now in a design phase and both are scheduled to open in 2016 in close coordination with a major expansion of the airport terminal. This new workshop will be built to cope with an extended version of the existing vehicles. Two new modules will be added to the five-module vehicles, increasing their length from 32m to 42m and increasing the number of motorised bogies from 2 (of 3) to 3 (of 4). Therefore, the installed power will be increased from 360kW to 540kW.

The original fleet of 12 Variobahn vehicles will be supplemented with eight new vehicles in the next two years (two of these have already been delivered and are in service). The extension to the airport and the new workshop will also allow the introduction of 42m-long vehicles both with new vehicles and extension of the existing vehicles.

During the 10 years between the decision to build and the opening of the system, the focus of the city’s project team was concentrated on the opening day, i.e. getting the first phase of the system built on-time and on-budget and working according to specification. This focus was rewarded by a project that was able to meet these goals.

The line from Nesttun to Bergen City Centre was completed and opened during the week that was forecast when construction began in January 2008, and it was completed within the budget agreed with the Norwegian Government. In general, the system began passenger operations with only minor technical difficulties and some minor accidents.

Bybanen has been a great success in terms of ridership and public acceptance. It has become a symbol of the city in a short period of time, as well as an object of pride. It has proven to be safe, attractive, reliable, quiet and a catalyst for development. There is broad agreement coupled with political support to extend the system in all directions to serve all parts of the city, and possibly the region.

Throughout this period, the project team concentrated on construction and cost topics. However, in retrospect, the team should have used more time to consider the organisational and operational challenges of a new light-rail system.

In a previous article for Intelligent Transport, I argued that we should have made economic provisions for changes in infrastructure, which always need to be made after the opening of any new complex infrastructure. In this article, I would like to focus on the need for those in charge of such projects to consider operational challenges and the organisation of the various actors involved in the system at an early stage as such a focus will have many positive benefits. It will enable cost-effective operations and will improve the overall safety and reliability of the system, plus it will increase customer satisfaction and the possibility of establishing a positive brand image for the system.

The days of integrated transport operators taking responsibility for all aspects of public transportation are no longer in favour. At the very least, cities have both a public transport authority and a public transport operator. In Bergen, we have gone even further and have six different organisations involved in our light-rail.

The City of Bergen is responsible for the initial planning of the light-rail alignment including the public hearing process.The City determines the station locations as well as the general geometry and profile of the line. It is possible to make only minor corrections to these alignment decisions during the detail design phase of the project.

After the City plans the alignment and obtains the necessary legal provisions to establish the line through the expropriation of necessary property, the County of Hordaland takes over. The county organisation, known as Bybanen Utbygging (Bybanen Construction), is responsible for the design and construction of the infrastructure. They hire a design consultant, issue tender documents for construction of civil works and technical systems and provide construction supervision and testing of technical systems.

When the construction work is completed and certified by Bybanen Utbygging as com – pliant with the contract, it is turned over to a county-owned company called Bybanen AS, which is responsible for maintaining and operating the completed infrastructure. Bybanen AS is also responsible for vehicle procurement and manages the maintenance agreement with the vehicle supplier, Stadler Pankow GmbH.

The County’s Public Transport Authority (PTA) is Skyss. They are responsible for the integrated public transport ticketing system, marketing and information as well as routes and schedules. They are responsible for the tendering process and the monitoring and supervision of the contract with the operating company.

Passenger operations are awarded on a tender basis and Bybanen is operated by Fjord1 Partner, a company owned by Fjord1 and Keolis Nordic AB.

In summary, the following tasks and organisations are involved in the Bergen Light Rail project:

  • Planning and public hearing: City of Bergen
  • Design and construction: County of Hordaland, Bybanen Construction
  • Infrastructure operator: Bybanen AS (owned by County of Hordaland)
  • Vehicle maintenance: Stadler Pankow GmbH
  • Public transport authority: County of Hordaland, Skyss
  • Passenger operations: Fjord1 Partner (Fjord1 and Keolis).

Each of these various organisations has a set of tasks to perform and goals to be met. Not all of these tasks are necessarily compatible and each organisation’s goals are not necessarily the same as the overall goals for the system. Therefore the needs of the passengers are often in conflict with the needs of the individual organisations.

For example, Bybanen Construction is interested in building a system that is delivered on-time and -budget, and meets technical specifications. Their performance is not measured against long-term reliability, availability or maintainability. The various systems, technical solutions and construction methods used on the first phase of the project have been changed for the second phase. It is expected that further changes and deviations will be included in the next phase; the extension to the airport.

This situation is brought about because new design consultants are not bound to previous design decisions. In fact, they often do not have access to the background information used for the previous design decision. Construction contractors also propose cheaper solutions or solutions which can be built to guarantee the proposed construction schedule. Finally, construction and technical system contractors have contracts with Bybanen Construction. But the infrastructure is transferred to Bybanen AS before operations commence. The natural result is unfortunately a lack of enthusiasm and interest to correct system deficiencies and follow-up guarantee claims.

Skyss, as the public transportation authority, is one step removed from the actual day-to-day operations of the system, but is supposed to be the main interface to the public for information. This is satisfactory for normal customer service information during working hours. However, during incidents (accidents, disrup tions, etc.) it is difficult for Skyss to provide an information capability to the public and the media. The result is often third-hand information delivered in an untimely manner and thus of little value to the passengers.

And finally, since Fjord1 Partner is evaluated by performance and reliability, it is natural for them to try to assign responsibility for delays or cancellations on other organisations within the Bybanen family such as the vehicle maintenance (in the case of vehicle failures) provider Stalder Pankow GmbH or the infra – structure operator Bybanen AS (in the case of infrastructure failures).

The end result is that we now have six separate organisations responsible for ensuring that Bybanen provides a level of service demanded by the public and the politicians.

This often leads to undesirable situations; for example, there could be an overlap in responsibility between two organisations, which could cause conflict and therefore a danger of providing different information to the public. For example, who is responsible for public information with regard to system failures; the operator, the infrastructure company or the PTA? Or, alternatively, gaps could arise between the areas of responsibility, where no single organisation provides the services or leadership required to improve the circumstances. In any case, the complexity of the organisation structure demands a tremendous level of communication and coordination between the various organisations.

The old saying ‘when everyone has responsibility, no one is responsible’ rings true in Bergen.

The County of Hordaland has recently recognised the challenges associated with such a dispersed organisational model and has begun an evaluation of the current structure and intends to modify the structure to meet the goals of the system; to be the backbone for public transport and city development.

This is a good thing, but in my opinion, we could have anticipated these difficulties before opening. I hope other system promoters will consider my comments when planning their new systems. The infrastructure and rolling stock are important, but how public transport services are organised, provided, improved and expanded are also topics which need to be carefully planned during the development phase of a project.

 

About the author

Thomas J. Potter was the Chief Engineer for Bybanen, the Bergen Light Rail project, from 2001 until March 2012. A native of the USA, he was educated at MIT and the University of Pennsylvania. He was responsible for the technical specifications of the entire system and has been the Project Manager for the 100% low-floor Variobahn vehicles delivered by Stadler Pankow GmbH in Berlin. He is now a Senior Transportation Engineer with Norconsult AS and is still based in Bergen currently working on the alignment study and environmental impact assessment of the extension of Bybanen to the northern suburbs of Åsane (about 10km).

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