“a major leap forward in the reorganisation of the LPT”
Sondrio
November 2020 – April 2021
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Sondrio Agency for LPT and Municipality of Sondrio
Operating Programme for the new urban public transport network
Defining a new urban public transport network for the city of Sondrio (21,000 inhabitants) was an important and interesting challenge, aimed above all at enhancing the current service while overcoming its criticalities. At present the service includes 5 lines aimed mainly at school users, with non-regular timetables, and is therefore considered too “scattered” and unattractive for ordinary (non-scholar) user.
A number of strong, non-negotiable planning objectives have therefore been defined, which are considered fundamental for offering an important qualitative leap for a city like Sondrio, which in addition to being a provincial capital has recently started drafting the PGTU (Urban Traffic Plan). In line with the new provincial transport planning, which is leading to a gradual redesign of several significant local and cross-border public transport lines, the aim has been to achieve a “Swiss-style” urban transport supply in Sondrio. These are the must-have minimum requirements:
The new Operating Programme proposed by NET Engineering envisages two ordinary lines that cross the entire centre of Sondrio (Blue Line North-South, Red Line East-West), also serving the Sassella district, currently not served by urban transport. In addition to the two main lines, a school line connects the bus station to the Professional Training Centre.
Both lines operate every weekday on an hourly basis and are reinforced at 30′ during peak hours. During the summer period, only the reinforcement runs will be reduced, keeping the hourly frequency.
In order to guarantee the interchange with the regional trains from/to Milan/Tirano, there is a stop of about 6′ at the FS station, which is also useful to allow users to interchange not only with the railway but also between urban lines, thus covering all possible urban relations.
The service can be provided with 6 vehicles only (as many as at current state) and with the same amount of resources (equal to 135,000 Veic*Km per year).
Starting from the identification of the objectives and design constraints to arrive at the definition of the Operating Programme, the design process has been based on a very fruitful and close dialogue between NET, the LPT Agency, the Municipality of Sondrio and the company delivering the current service.