ISTANBUL Smart Designed Metro Lines

Istanbul is like a state on its own. With its population of almost 14 million, it’s larger than 23 countries in Europe. The metropolitan area falling under the responsibility of the Metropolitan Municipality is 5.389 km2, and its east-to-west extension is 165 km, and north-to-south distance is 45 km.

Istanbul is the largest city in Turkey. The officially registered population is 13.8 million people as of 2014, which makes about 18% of Turkey’s population. This means that out of every 5 Turkish citizens, one lives in Istanbul. Plus, Istanbul is the 3rd largest metropolitan area in Europe after London and Moscow.

Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality (IMM) has a massive budget. It’s budget is larger than 18 of the 29 Ministries in Turkey. The consolidated budget generally increases by 7.7% every years, and for 2013 it was around 12 billion USD. Of this figure, 8 billion USD is the investment budget, and around half of this budget is dedicated to transport every year.

So far, the Municipality succeeded in solving all its problems for the foreseeable future (i.e. Water supply, pollution, housing etc.), except for transport: The traffic congestion within the city is a growing problem and that’s why the Metropolitan Municipality dedicated almost half of its resources and energy to solve the transport problem.

IMM has introduced a new Project into the service of the citizens within the scope of the Project named “Park and continue travelling”. By means of this Project the citizens shall be able to travel to any spot they want after having left their vehicles at the park area car park which is nearly 5 minutes away from the metro stations.

Picture: Park and Travel Locations

Passengers shall have the right to make use of park which has a capacity of 50 to 1000 vehicles and is 5 minutes away from stations with a 20 % discount from the daily tariff of ISPARK (company of the IMM) for days.

Ring vehicles shall be in place in order to secure a safe a timely travel within the scope of the “Park and continue travelling with metrolines” concept. (http://www.ispark.com.tr/aracini-isparka-park-et-metro-ile-devam-et/)

The population of Istanbul is 14 million and around 5 million trips are made on a daily basis with all modes of public transport including buses, BRT, tramways, funicular lines, sea transport etc. The General Directorate of IETT manages the public transport fare collection system in Istanbul. There is not a second public transport card in this regard. 92% of the public transport is performed by using Istanbulcard.

The segments of the recipient audience are defined by education, age, frequency of using public transport and issues of positive discrimination. IETT provides different tariffs, tranport options and campaigns for these segments.

The general objective is to maximise the benefits of customers.

In this regard our value proposition as IETT is: “To be recognized as an istitution which provides rapid, comfortable, safe, economic, accesible, integrated and sustainable public transport and to be preffered because of these reasons.” There are also some initiatives in order to use Istanbulkart as a payment instrument in affiliates of Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality, such as ISPARK A.S. (parking), KULTUR A.S. (culture) and SAGLIK A.S. (health).

• Istanbulkart is easy to use. It is able to work contactless and practical to carry.
• Istanbulkart is totally secure. It is impossible to copy the card or load credit except for the certified booths. Loading and validating systems are configured over different electronic systems and codes, and have technologic protection. Personalized electronic cards have credit protection for getting lost or stolen. Their credits are transferred to their new cards.
• Istanbulkart is an advantageous card. It provides the opportunity to make discounted trips thanks to different product ranges and transfer option.
• Istanbulkart provides uninterrupted trips. Istanbulkart, which can be used in all transport authorities in Istanbul, enables uninterrupted travels thanks to its full integration feature.
• Istanbulkart is open for improvement. Its infrastructure, allowing multi-applications, proves that it has a high potential in order to be used as a payment instrument and city card.

And that’s what we plan entegration of public transports with metrolines to have in 2019.

(http://www.istanbulunmetrosu.com/)