Monorail systems, investment processes in Turkey and approach of local governments to monorail

Whereas urban rail systems are taking their places in urban life as complementary to one another, monorail systems are also considered as a part of the solution in urban transportation particularly in the city centers. This study was carried out to make a general literature search about monorail systems that have been included in the urban transportation agenda in recent years and have entered the investment agenda of the local governments and become an alternative investment option to the urban rail systems such as subways, light subways, light rail systems and trams; to compare the advantages and disadvantages of these systems with other urban rail systems; to examine monorail models abroad in order to form a base for the planned monorail projects in our country; to examine the investment processes related to monorail investments planned to be made in Istanbul; and also to demonstrate the approaches of local governments to monorail systems. In this context, a holistic study was carried out on the monorail systems which offer lower and higher number of passenger transport alternatives with lower investment costs compared to alternative rail systems, which are easily applicable even in sloped terrain, urban centers and narrow roads and at the same time with low expropriation cost. The first two chapters of this thesis cover an overall assessment of urban railway systems used to deliver public transportation service and to solve urban traffic problems. General information on specification and characteristics of the suburban, subway, light rail system, monorail, tram and funicular systems was provided. In addition, in the process of determining types of urban rail systems, these systems were compared according to their technological, economic and other characteristics along with topographic and climatic structure of the region or city, its geology, socioeconomic structure, the master and reconstruction plans of the transportaion of the region, current road and system information, travel demand and potential, capacity, frequencies and volume. The third chapter of the thesis contains general information on monorail systems, monorail system types, monorail system specifications, global monorail manufacturers and their production types and technologies. This chapter also examines monorail costs under two subtitles as investment (construction and vehicle) costs and operational costs. Comparison between monorail systems and other urban railway systems was made in the rest of the chapter, and a table presenting advantages and disadvantages of monorail systems was formed. In this scope, when monorail systems and other urban rail systems were compared according to the above-mentioned criteria, the main advantages distinguishing monorail from other urban rail systems were specified as follows: • Ability to comply with existing infrastructure and topography, • Applicable for high slope routes where other rail systems can not be used, • Rapid construction (almost all major parts are pre-manufactured and brought to the project site, thus it can be brought into service in a short period of time) • Less shading of the sunlight due to narrow pathways and having no effect on the perspective, • Not hindering urban surface, highway traffic and pedestrian circulation, • Being safe, • Being fast, allowing frequent headways, being punctual and reliable, • Being environmental friendly (zero emissions depending on the electrical energy), • Being constructed on refuges generally and low cost of expropriation due to the fact that it covers a very narrow area, • Low maintenance costs, • Being an image and prestige source for cities due to their modern appearance Besides their advantages, monorail systems also bear some disadvantages: • Since it is a new technology, its safety and validity have not yet been proven. • Passenger evacuation is difficult in emergencies. • Scissors systems are slower than rail systems due to the size of the beams. • The availability of the replacement parts is difficult compared to other systems. • It causes visual pollution due to elevated routes and passenger stations. The forth chapter addresses monorail system models abroad, and also monorail systems in Turkey which are either in the planning phase or under construction phase. When monorail systems abroad were examined, besides their use in urban transportation, it was found out that some of them were utilized in order to provide internal transportation in amusement parks, zoos, botanical gardens, campuses of universities and similar educational institutions, large shopping malls, tourism centers, airports and expo areas; and others operated at transfer points so as to provide integration with other transportation modes. Monorail systems for urban transportation are present in a number of countries such as United States of America and Brazil in Americas; Germany, UK, Italy and Russia in Europe; and Japan, Singapore, South Korea, Thailand, Malaysia, United Arab Emirates, Iran and India in Asia continent. In the scope of this thesis, Wuppertal from Germany, Haneda from Japan, and Dubai-Palm Island from United Arab Emirates were examined as monorail models. As there are no completed monorail examples in our country, general information was presented on monorail projects planned / designed to be realized in Istanbul. In the fifth chapter, a general evaluation about requirements and processes of monorail systems in Turkey was made by reviewing monorail investments in master plan decisions and related legislation. In this regard, these requirements and processes were investigated by the feasibility study of Sefakoy-Halkali-Basaksehir Monorail Line in İstanbul and a general evaluation regarding financing models of the investments was made. According to the findings, monorail investments could yield results hard to reverse in terms of urbanization and economy as a result of wrong investment decisions due to the fact that they are high budgeted investments, they constitute a basis for many projects to be made in the future, and they are determinant in processes. For this reason, when monorail investment are to be made, as it is in other railed systems, it is of great importance for our cities and residents that alternative transportation systems are examined well, and phases of analysis, planning, design, feasibility and application are scrutinized in line with transportation demands taking into consideration the cost-benefit analysis and as a result the most proper decision is taken and the proces is managed in parallel with specified priorities. While making decisions on monorail systems, it is necessary to take into account existing land use, urban development direction, population projection, and lower and upper scale plan decisions. According to this; monorail systems should be integrated into other transportation systems, and they should be implemented and operated in such a way to feed each other. In order for the municipalities to be able to make high-cost monorail investment decisions, it is crucial that transportation master plan be formed, which determines the short, medium and long-term planning decisions, the investment of the monorail be in the above-mentioned master plan. In such a case, a comprehensive study following a methodological process and aiming at establishing demand forecasting models through mathematical methods should be conducted so as to render investment process effective and obtain expected benefits with optimum cost. For the financing of transport investments; monorail investments can be realized by using financing models and alternatives such as public own resources, public-private partnership cooperation, external financing resources and capital market instruments Sixth chapter contains findings of the survey study conducted with mayors and transportation administrators of some metropolitan municipalities in order to show how the monorail systems are perceived by the local governments and to which extent they are accepted. When the results of the survey conducted with the local administrators were assessed in general, it was observed that most of the technical transportation administrators of the municipalities had general knowledge on monorail systems, some of them planned to make investments of monorail in their cities and some of them leaned towards the idea of monorail investment. Though it was not clearly stated in the meetings, it was believed that the idea of being the "first municipality" to invest monorail in Turkey was attracted by the local administrators considering that monorail projects would add prestige to the cities. In the conclusion, an overall assesment regarding general features of monorail systems, their advantages and disadvantages, investment processes in Turkey, approaches of local governments to monorail systems was carried out.