Keeping or not a BRT line on the route of a new subway?

Abstract

International audience; Line 1 of BRT, the first line of BRT system in Iran, and line 4 of Subway, designed as a sustainable transport system and constructed afterwards, have common path of 10 km length in the most congested area of the capital. This pioneer BRT line has the maximum record among all BRT lines in Tehran. Its success caused lower funds allocation and less attention to the planning and implementation of the line 4 of Subway. As a result currently line 4 of Subway works at 35% of its capacity with only 13 car-trains and the headway of 7-10 min. Construction investment in the subway line 4 was about 11 times more than in the line 1 of BRT. Thus, postponing of investments to the line 4 of Subway causes 65% of its infrastructure capacity to be unused. However, the elimination for BRT line appears logical, it’s important to avoid negative social impact, as this is a fact that the citizens of Tehran usually have fractal character, so that little changes in their behavior needs long time and enough desirability. Additional funds should also be found for the line 4 of Subway while budgets are saturated and other lines, considering existing demand, are in priority. Therefore, Tehran nowadays is brought to find remedial solutions to transport challenges: to align short-term and long-term sustainable solutions in order to achieve its economic, social and environmental goals.

Original document

The different versions of the original document can be found in:

• https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01438444