At the moment, the city of Liepaja has only one tram line, which is almost 8 km long and starts in the southern part of the city, passes the city centre, then stops next to the Liepaja Central Station and terminates at the Iron and Steel Works. The central and northern part of this city is covered only by the municipal bus network. That’s why I decided to offer a dual-type rail network for this beautiful city of almost 70,000 inhabitants.
Construction of new tram routes in this city is a subject of significant investment in infrastructure and rolling stock, but let’s remember that Latvia is a member of the European Union, which offers to subsidize, on average, 70 to 80% of the total cost of projects to public transport development. A developed tram network surely will be a rather heavy burden on the city’s budget, but do not forget that public transport is never a cost-effective deal.
If we look at the geographic map of the city we will see 3 big parts of residential areas divided by two channels. The existing tram line serves the southern part of the city with a short extension in the middle part. However, both middle and northern parts are covered by the industrial railway lines serving the seaport and Karosta District with its former Soviet naval base.
Using the existing mostly rarely used railway infrastructure is a great idea, so the expansion of the tram network in the central and northern city’s parts would be a real fund squander causing multiple difficulties in tram/train level crossings, requiring building tunnels or viaducts or even suspend traffic on some sections of the railway. Click on the image below, then right-click to open the full resolution image, which you can zoom in for an online preview or download to your device for free personal use.
In the northern part of the city (Figure 1), we can see a rarely used track branch connecting the Karosta District with the central station – it can be our Route 4. In the northeast (in the path of dismantled industrial branch line), we can construct Route 6, which will take us to the Business Centre and even further to the Regional Hospital. Both routes can fully serve the local passenger flow of the central-northern part of the city. Route 5 would connect the Central Station with the local airport and suburban town Grobina, but this route can be extended till the O. Kalpaks Bridge according to demand.
For the partly abandoned Karosta District, it would be a great opportunity to start massive development with new residential areas, office hubs, and beautiful recreation zones and all of them connected by modern municipal transport which always is a matter. Same the industrial track between the Central Station and The Tramway Bridge could be also converted to passenger service. But an ambitious, ultra-modern rail bridge would extend the service to the Concert Hall (the very centre!).
Tram?
Yes, the tramway system can be expanded in the southern part of the city. I offer to add two additional tram routes – circular Route 2/2a, which would serve the central part of the old town and Route 3, which partly would share tracks with existing Route 1 and will serve the eastern part of the old town.
Municipal bus network
As the majority of mass transit will be performed by our beautiful urban rail network, busses will serve in less inhabited districts or where the building of the rail tracks would meet difficulties. Five main bus routes are enough for Liepaja! Besides others one branched bus line will serve also for inhabitants of satellite town Grobiņa and connect it with the suburban train Route 5. That’s all for today! 🙂
Title image credit: la.lv
