Optimization of the public transport network for a multiple-core city : Case study: Stockholm

Abstract: Stockholm is a city in constantly development and growing. By 2030, Stockholm’s population will increase by 300 000 inhabitants. This growth will not be only in the inner city, but also in the regional cores, affecting the structure of the city. Many years ago, Stockholm was a monocentric city with a dominant city inner city, but now, due to the population’s growth, this situation is changing. The fact that Stockholm is becoming a polycentric county (with stronger regional cores) makes it necessary to adapt its public transport network. Nowadays, 60% of the trips between regional cores are done by car. The improvement of the public transport system should decrease this number as it would become more attractive to people. In this thesis, the idea of implementing a new line which links all of the regional cores will be studied using the Visum tool. This new line pretends to strengthen the regional cores and create a more polycentric public transport network. Alternative one will follow the current way of planning the lines in the regional cores, with buses with a distance between stops of around 400 meters. Alternative two will plan for polycentrism, with higher speeds and a distance between stops of around one kilometer. In addition, different routes will be studied for each alternative. Finally, all of these alternatives and subalternatives will be compared between each other and the reference scenario to find the one that will effectively improve the multi-core structure of Stockholm.