Tbilisi sustainable urban transport project

Tbilisi sustainable urban transport project 

Local Economic 

Development Forum 

April 8 th 2010 

Tbilisi, Georgia 


April, the 8th 2010 

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Contents 

1. Study background 

2. Metro Universetiti extension Design 

3. Roadmap: work performed 

4. Objectives of the Masterplan 

5. Some the projects being currently considered 

6. Future work 



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1. Study background 



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Study background 

1 

Context : 

- Asian Development Bank (ADB) loan proposed to finance transport projects in 

Tbilisi 

- Consortium including the French company Systra, Georgian company Spectrum 

and British company EC Harris was selected to: 

- Review the feasibility studies of the projects in order to make them compliant 

with ADB international standards, 

- Include the projects into a global and strategic sustainable roadmap for short, 

medium and long-term solutions. 

- Study began in December 2009, due to be completed by the September 2010 



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1 

Roadmap content & methodology: 

- Rationale for the roadmap: integrate projects financed by ADB into a global and 

sustainable roadmap for the city of Tbilisi, 

- Assessment of the socio-economical situation, 

- Implementation of Origin/Destination surveys in the Metro, in buses and on the road 

network to have a strategic overview of passengers flows in Tbilisi, 

- Additional: help the municipality organizing a full household survey using 

international standards in order to have a detailed understanding of transportation 

behavior in the city of Tbilisi, 

- Strategic evaluation of the proposed projects, 

- Additional: implementation of a full detailed model using an international software to 

test all municipality projects, 

- Cost estimates and cost-benefit analysis. 



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1 

Challenges: lack of data 

- Almost no data existed about transportation demand in Tbilisi, 

- Therefore it was decided to perform surveys to understand Tbilisi inhabitants’ 

current and future needs, 

- Such surveys were never performed before in Tbilisi; Systra implements an 

international standard methodology already successfully tested in numerous cities 

around the world (Mexico, Rio de Janeiro, Cairo, Sarajevo, Hanoï…) ensuring 

quality and statistical significance of the results. This will provide very useful 

information to the Municipality of Tbilisi. 

- Collecting data about transportation demand is essential to understand 

transportation-related issues and to propose relevant coordinated and sustainable 

projects corresponding to the inhabitants current and future short, medium and 

long-term needs. 



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2. Metro University Extension Design 



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Metro extension design 

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Review and update the existing design 

- Tunnel and station civil works 

- Systems & signaling 



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2 

Review and update the existing design 



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2 

Propose architectural concepts for the stations 



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2 

Propose 3 architectural concepts for the stations 



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2 

Prepare the Metro extension tender for the Municipality 

- Audit report on the state of the projects and actions to be implemented was 

delivered 15/03/2010 

- Final design Package for the Metro extension to be tendered is expected to be 

delivered on 31/05/2010 

- Construction is expected to last 30 months and include: 

- Construction works 

- Installation and testing of equipment 

- Finishes 

- Cost estimate for the extension: around US $ 30 Millions 



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3 

3. Roadmap : work performed 



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Socio-economical assessment 3 

- Specific shape of the city very constraint by natural topography favoring the 

existence of bottlenecks in the transportation system, 

- Very dense suburbs generating several trips, 

- Very attractive center, 

- Numerous former industrial areas now unoccupied providing space for new housing 

or business development, 

- Several ongoing urban projects, the most important being the removal of the railway 

tracks from the city center, 

- Tbilisi in the regional context: important commuting from Rustavi, main attracting 

center in Georgia, important transit (thru) traffic (persons and goods) between 

Turkey, Armenia, Azerbaijan and Russia. 



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Socio-economic assessment 3 



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Transportation system assessment 3 

Road network: 

- Very extensive road network, usually far from capacity, 

- Few bottlenecks in the network and some inefficiency in traffic flows management, 

- Bad connection between northern and southern part of the city due to the city center 

bottleneck, 

- Important to be careful about road investment in order to build a sustainable 

roadmap. 

Public transport network: 

- Strong and efficient Metro backbone serving part of the city center and some of the 

dense suburbs, 

- Bus and Marshrutkas network not optimized: O/D logic on many links while traffic 

need to be consolidated on strong corridors to offer better and cheaper service, 

- Some areas in the city center and in the dense suburbs are not served by a heavy 

transport mode (light rail for instance), 

- Bad connections between suburbs. 



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Transport system assessment 3 



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Surveys 

3 

Objective: 

- Very few data about transportation demand in Tbilisi, 

- Only boarding number per station in the Metro and 

boarding number per line in the bus system, 

- No information about origins, destinations, motives 

of the persons, 

- Objective 1: building a Origin/Destination matrix for 

trips performed during the peak period in Tbilisi, 

- Objective 2: propose transportation projects 

corresponding to the current and future demand 

corridors (taking into account urban developments), 

- Additional objective: assist the municipality in the 

process of getting a complete overview of the 

transportation behavior in Tbilisi. 



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Surveys 

3 

In the Metro network: 

- Manual counts completed by automatic 

counts at the turnstile. 

- Over 6300 Origin-Destination surveys 

performed at morning peak (8:00 AM – 

11:00 PM) at 11 major Metro stations 

‣ Age and occupation, 

‣ Origin of the trip (usually home 

address), 

‣ Destination of the trip (usually 

business/school address), 

‣ Motive of the trip (home-work, 

home-study….), 

‣ Trip duration, frequency of the trip, 

number of transfers. 



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Surveys 3 



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Surveys 3 

Metro survey in Akhmateli Teatri station 



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Surveys 3 

Metro survey in Varketili station 



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Surveys 

3 

On the road network: 

- Counts performed at over 20 locations 

during morning and evening peak hour at 

the Tbilisi Patrol Police video center, 

- Over 3000 Origin-Destination surveys 

performed at evening time (5 PM – 7:30 

PM) at 11 locations around and inside 

Tbilisi with the assistance of the Tbilisi 

Patrol Police 



address), 




home-study….), number of people in 

the vehicle. 



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Surveys 3 

Counts results 



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Surveys 

3 



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Surveys 

3 



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Surveys 

3 



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Surveys 

3 



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Surveys 

3 



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Surveys 

3 

In the bus network: 

- Counts are currently being performed by 

the Tbilisi Bus Company with the 

assistance of Systra/Spectrum, 

- Around 3000 Origin-Destination surveys 

performed at evening time (4:30 PM – 

7:30 PM) at 15 major Bus stations 



address), 




home-study….), 

‣ List of PT lines used. 



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Surveys 

3 



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Surveys 

3 



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4. Objectives of the Masterplan 



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Stakes and challenges to Tbilisi’s development 

4 

Main stakes for Tbilisi’s sustainable development: 

- Remove main bottlenecks and improve accessibility to all parts of the city 

- Anticipate the growth of the motorization rate due to the economic development 

- Anticipate the growth in mobility due to the economic development 

- Keep the current modal split by reinforcing quality and attractiveness of public 

transport and promoting Transit-Oriented Development (TOD) & promote intermodal 

passenger transport 

- Anticipate the new urban projects (housing and business centers) in order to 

propose projects suitable to future mobility needs. 

Total trips 

Car trips 

Public Transport trips 

Today 2025 



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Objectives 

4 

5 identified objectives: 

1. Improve efficiency of private transport (cars…), 

2. Complete the road network, 

3. Improve Public Transport quality and level of service, 

4. Extent the Public Transport network, 

5. Promote a pedestrian friendly strategy and the quality of life in Tbilisi. 

3 phases: 

- “Optimization” (short term) 

- “Development” (medium term) 

- “Ambitious” (long term) 



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Objectives 

4 

Projects already decided integrated into the Masterplan 

1. Vere River highway: rapid highway connection between Gmirta Moedani and 

Delisi Metro Station 

2. New bridge over the Mtkvari River: connecting Didube and the Right Bank 

between Digomi and Saburtalo 

3. Universiteti Metro extension: opening of the metro extension between Vaja 

Pshavela and Universiteti 

4. Gorgasali Tunnel: construction of a tunnel along Gorgasali street 

5. Removal of the railway line in the city center of Tbilisi: construction of a new 

highway/boulevard on the former rail right-of-way. 

6. Rike – Shavi Zgvis Kucha link 

7. Rustavi Highway urban link: new freeway/highway connecting Rustavi and 

Tbilisi. 

8. Traffic light management on Chavchavadze 



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Actions 

4 

Around 30 projects or policy proposed: 

- 10 projects for the Road network 

- 10 projects for Public transport network 

- 4-5 new Parking lots proposed 

- Intermodality: 3 main transfer stations 

- 2 soft modes project 

- 1 urban boulevard project 

PROJECTS ARE INTEGRATED AND INTER-RELATED 

TO BUILD A LONG TERM SUSTAINABLE MASTERPLAN 



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5 

5. Some projects being currently considered 

in the roadmap 



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Urban sustainable development on removed railway right-of-way 5 



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Urban sustainable development on removed railway right-of-way 5 

Transform the rail right of way into a urban boulevard to reduce barriers between 

neighborhoods 

View of a LRT system 

BRT line on an urban boulevard. Lyon, 

France 

Photo Google 

The Transmilenio: an urban Bus Rapid Transit 

system 

Bogota, Colombia 



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Urban sustainable development on removed railway right-of-way 

5 

Example of an urban boulevard with a BRT system: the Busway in Nantes 

Nantes, France 



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5 




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5 




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Urban sustainable development on removed railway 

infrastructure 

5 

Bordeaux, France 

Photo LA CUB© 



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Barcelona, Spa

Regeneration of a Light Rail Network 

5 

Need for additional structuring Public transport network 

- Many areas not served by the Metro or a heavy PT system 

- Strong demand on some corridors served by many bus lines 

- Rationale for consolidating the demand into a LRT system with a high quality of 

service 

- Transforming the current “O/D system” into a “corridor system” with feeding lines 

- LRT lines are built in all modern cities 

- Municipality of Tbilisi showed a great interest in the project 

- Complementary with some proposed Metro extension 



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Regeneration of a Light Rail Network 

5 



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Urban organization with LRT 

5 

Padova, Italy 

Source : Lohr Industry © 



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5 

Teda,China 




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5 

Clermont-Ferrand, France 


Montpelier, France 

Source : RATP/D.JACKSON © 


Source : La CUB © 

Istanboul, Turkey 

Source : Bombardier© 

Teda,China 




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An high-tech and highly design solution for cities 

5 

Marseille, France 

Source : 

SYSTRA/L.CARDUCCI © 



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An high-tech and highly design solution for cities 

5 

Orléans, France 

Source : 

SYSTRA/P.JOURDAIN © 



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An environmentally responsible, modern and comfort way to 

travel 

5 

Clermont-Ferrand, France 

Source : SYSTRA 

Mulhouse, France 

Source : Alstom © 

Grenoble, France 

Source : SYSTRA 

Dubaï, UAE 

Source : SYSTRA © 


Source : La CUB © 



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Public Transport Actions: Metro 

5 

Metro extensions to Universiteti, 

Gldani and Varketili 

Green line extension 

Red line extension 



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Limit local & regional transit traffic in the city center 5 

Regional transit traffic 

- Tbilisi located at the crossroads between several regions & countries: Turkey- 

Azerbaijan, Turkey-Armenia, Russia-Armenia 

- External ring road is not completed between Rustavi Highway and Marneuli 

Highway. 

Local transit traffic 

- Several bottlenecks in the city center while local thru traffic has to go through the 

city center (mainly on the embankments), 

- Rationale to propose an inner ring road for traffic between the suburbs. 

- Alignment possible along the Tbilisi Sea in the context of the Tbilisi Sea 

Development project and the railway bypass project. 



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Limit local & regional thru traffic in the city center 5 



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Other actions 5 

Several other actions proposed 

- Reorganization and rationalization of the bus network, 

- New integrated fare system, 

- Road traffic management in the city center, 

- New parking lots and new parking policy, 

- Reduced speed zone in the old city (long-term). 



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6 

6. Future work 



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Future work for Systra/Spectrum 

6 

Propose a strategic roadmap on short, medium and long term 

- Analysis the results of the surveys, 

- Propose a strategic roadmap based on actual and future trends of demand, 

- Phase projects and investment plan, 

- Detail short/medium term projects, 

- Traffic estimates based on performed surveys. 



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Future work for the municipality 

6 

Implementing of a household survey 

- Around 7,000 households (about 18,000 

persons) to be surveyed in Tbilisi 

- International standard methodology to 

ensure quality monitoring and accuracy of 

results 

- Never performed before in the Caucasus 

Region 

- Provide important transportation-related data 

such as mobility, motorized mobility 

depending on income, age, occupation, trip 

motive, motorization… 

- Provide information about Tbilisi inhabitant’s 

opinion on transportation-related subject 

- Allow to calibrate a state-of-the art 

multimodal detailed transportation model 



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Future work for the municipality 

6 

Building a multimodal model owned by the 

municipality 

- Based on the household survey and on 

counts performed, calibration of a detailed 

transportation model (100 – 300 zones) using 

internationally recognized software (Cube, 

Visum…), 

- Socio-economic projection at short, medium 

and long term taking into account land-use 

projects, 

- Test of proposed transportation projects 

(road, LRT projects, bus lines 

restructuration…) & reliable results, 

- Training program for Municipality staff so that 

they can use the model and test all their 

projects on daily basis, 

- Update of the model every two years. 



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THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION 

Contacts 

Jean-Manuel GIELY - Project Manager, Systra: jmgiely@systra.com 

Asmat ABESADZE – Deputy Project Manager, Spectrum : info@spectrum.com.ge 

Marc-Olivier MAILLEFAUD – Deputy Project Manager, Systra : momaillefaud@systra.com 

Stephane COHEN – Transport Engineer and Planner, Systra : scohen@systra.com 



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Tbilisi sustainable urban transport project

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