The ferry and line analysis of Istanbul sehir hatlari

The public transportation in Istanbul is a system which serves more than 13 million people by different transportation systems; rail systems, bus networks, funicular railways and ferries. İstanbul, where it is surrounded by sea on three sides, in addition has a Bosphorus which divide the city, marine transportation has a significant outcome. The population in Istanbul began to spread up to Karadeniz shores, hence the Bosphorus gained inceased transportation opportunities during Tanzimat period. This situation caused to increase marine transportation. There are many establishments such as Istanbul Deniz Otobüsleri (IDO), Turyol, Dentur, Mavi Marmara and Deniz Taksi for marine transportation. In this research, the most historical one, Istanbul Şehir Hatları, is analyzed. The reason of this study is to create an applicable cost system and cost accounting record system according to the need. In the "Cost Accounting in the Transportation Companies" by Orhon (1983), he underlined the importance of the trip cost in sea transportation and defended the motion that for each and every ship, all costs should be inspected separately. Besides, in the Stopford's (1977) study, he wrote about the types of cost in sea transportation and underlined that the managers should keep the ship managing cost at minimu so as to become a competitor to others. Cost is a topic we come across. It has different definitions. Some of them are following: "All a definable scarification in terms of money to bear to reach a goal and a thing allowing value accumulation" (Altuğ, 2006:15), "The monetary sum of unselfishness to bear to one's goal" (Büyükmirza, 2006:44), "The sum measured monetarily of a good or service gained or to be gained, of cash paid for a thing transferred, equity share, services or debt." (Aksit, 1996:1). As we can understand from the above definitions, cost can be defined differently. "Expense is the monetarily sum of the goods and services used in a particular period for maintenance of a company and keeping its presence." (Erdogan and Saban, 2006:22), The followings are the things affecting the cost in sea transportation: Unused transport capacity, it is a common feature of transport systems. They don't use their capacity to its limits. This kind of deficient capacity usage increases the cost in transport systems. The reason therefor is the costs increase accordingly to the ratio of capacity usage. The Age of the Ship, old ships are generally more costly than the new ones. As they get older their capital cost drops but their trip and operational costs increase compared to the new ships. For example, the daily cosy of an old ship will be very high because its machine, rasty structure, maintenance, high fuel-oil need etc. In modern and new ships, little need of workers, dependable fue usage, active machine system and low maintenance cost will be less. (Inal, 2004:23). Expansion of Istanbul transportation networks especially with Marmaray and Metrobüs and increasing competition with the affect of private sector in marine transportation cause to decline the number of Istanbul Şehir Hatları passenger numbers. Istanbul Şehir Hatları Inc, which was merged with Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality in 2010, is the single loss maker among the other Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality establishments. The ideas are exchanged with Planning Department in order to analyze this loss and Eminönü-Kadıköy, Kadıköy-Karaköy and Eminönü-Üsküdar lines among center lines are chosen for research. These lines have too low occupancy rate and high ferry operational costs, thus necessity of the changing current system is understood clearly. In this research, instead of low occupancy rate and high operational cost current system, low capacity and low operational cost new passenger ferries are recommended for voyages in three different scenarios. Thus, operation costs per passenger of ferries decline and voyages occur more profitable. Therefore, the many passenger ferries of Istanbul Şehir Hatları already expired their life span. These ferries increase total cost per passenger with high operation costs. Under normal circumstances, despite the fact that a passgenger ferry changes every 20 or 30 year, there are ferries older than 30 years in Istanbul Sehir . They have to change immediately both for health and security reasons. Taking into consideration this problem and the passenger number using sea transportation, formula therefor is; instead of changing the old ferries, they have to build new ferries for less passengers. New suitable ferries that are based on sample new ferry (Hasköy '2009' is working as a ferry in the Üsküdar <->Eminönü line). Hasköy's capacity is 800. Reason to do so is that there are ferries needing changing and if the future ones will be as big as them, it will be very costly for Istanbul Şehir Hatları. If the new ferries to be built will be smaller than the present ones, the cost will drop. While executing this project, the current system's operation cost is handled (expenditure of staffs,bunker cost etc.) ,maintenance cost (dockyard fees,electrical cost,main and auxiliary enginee maintenance cost ,equipment cost and special condition cost) and new suitable ferries' operation and maintenance cost. The average life span of a ferry is normally 20 or 30 years but some ferries used by Istanbul Sehir Hatlari are older 30 years. They have to change immediately for health, cost and security reasons. Old ferries are generally more costly than the new ones. As they get older their capital cost drops but their trip and operational costs increase compared to the new ships. For example; the daily cosy of an old ship will be very high because its machine, rasty structure, maintenance, high fuel-oil need etc. In modern and new ships, little need of workers, dependable fue usage, active machine system and low maintenance cost will be less. After searching, observing and interviewing, it is stated that one of the problems of Istanbul Şehir Hatları is that it transports less passenger for the ferries capacity. In this study, how to handle this problem will be delayed and the gainings of the solution will be observed . For that, the most problematic lines are studied, According to the anaylsis, it is observed that 3 out of 19 lines are the most problematic ones these are Eminönü<->Kadıköy,Karaköy<->Kadıköy,Eminönü<->Üsküdar lines and continued to work on them. The line based passanger numbers for 7 months are inspected and as a result of this inspection, the general average is so much less than the ship capacity except national and religious holiday. During the anaylsis, there were only 3 passengers who use these lines in some trips. As the result of researches so far, in spite oft he increasing population density, the ratio of the seaway usage is decreasing. Especially in recent year, rail public transportation role in reducing this ratio. The biggest example o this is Marmaray public transportation system which was founded in 29 October 2013. Although, day by day the rate of usage of ferries have been decreased, the new production o old type ferries which have high capacity and high cost is economically illogical. Furthermore, manufacture cost of old type ferries is higher than new ones as well as high maintanance and operation cost. In the recommended 3 scenarios, new passenger ferries, instead of high costed old passenger ferries in the current system, amortise initial investment cost approximately in 2 years by way of decreasing total operational costs. These payback period demostrates applicability of new scenarios. Key Words: Istanbul Şehir Hatları, Passenger ferries, Ferries occupancy rate, Ferries cost structure, Ferries capacity, Life span of ferries, Fleet management