How did Krakow build rapid transit at a low cost? | Navigating Urban Transit with George Liu

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Don't forget to turn on subtitles!
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How can a metro-level service be achieved within an existing tram network on a tight budget? Krakow (Poland) provides an illuminating example. Through strategic grade separation and absolute signal priority, Krakow Fast Tram (KST) project demonstrates the possibility of delivering swift and dependable tram services using pre-existing infrastructure. Officially initiated in the early 21st century, this innovative solution has effectively tackled urban transportation challenges in the city. Join us in this UMX video as we delve into the transformative benefits brought about by the KST project in Krakow.

#Krakow #Tram #PublicTransit #UMX

This episode is the third of our new series, "Navigating Urban Transit" featuring George Liu. In each episode, George travels to a different European place to discover its public transit system and its specificities. Stay tuned to find out where he will go next!
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This video was shot in August 2023. Many thanks to George Liu and Jedwin Mok for their tremendous work on this video!
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[whatthefukc]

You make it sound like Kraków has always had great urban planners who meticulously calculated gains against costs for different large scale transportation projects. In reality every 15 or so years the long term plans for the city are scrapped and rewritten, old plans are abandoned and new ones are paid for without hope for completion. Right now we have an abnormally long period of continuity and i hope it stays like this.

[Pawe-hgjc]

I would like to add that the Kraków tram network is being constantly expanded and right now two more underground tram stops are under construction.

[tomaszpiotrowski]

I have been to many places in Europe and to me Cracow stands out as a fine example of a city with a really reliable and efficient transportation network. The best way to move between different parts of the city. And still improving, new trams and buses to come, new lines under construction, new ways to purchase tickets, it's really nice. I hope that in the nearest future they will finally start to construct a metro system.

[mewosh_]

Calling Rondo Mogilskie a "depressed tram junction" is the most accurate thing I have ever heard

[panashejmombeshora]

I'm so grateful to have all this content to watch and learn from, as an African. We don't have any meaningful infrastructure, outside of some roads and standard car-dependent cities (African cities look like a budget version of the city Phoenix in AZ). Many young people like us, who will build Africa's cities of the future will have the opportunity to do it right, making travel inside the city and outside the city as easy as possible to those without cars

[TheFlyingMooseCA]

Love the use of existing ROWs and squeezing more value from existing infrastructure - so many cities can learn from this, including Toronto (where we keep handcuffing the efficiency of projects by leaving out signal priority or forcing modes to mix)

[manAF]

I love it! Thanks for highlighting Krakow! Nice to see my family's apartment block in the video briefly too haha!

[khamiszcze]

That's the strangest way of stressing syllables in "Cracow" I have ever heard.

[MatmarSpace]

The intro to this video was EPIC. The music really kicks in when he starts saying "They live here! In masive concrete tower blocks..." <3

[codefident]

Wow, fantastic high quality video of my city! 🥰
One small correction - PESA Krakowiak tram is actually around 43m long, not 48. Krakow is actually planning to order up to 30 new trams of similar length. 😊

[ukaszb]

0:47 Poland shed its communist government (and thus became fully independent from the USSR) in 1989, so technically the subsequent fall of the USSR in 1991 wasn't all that relevant to what you're describing. Communist Poland was never a Soviet republic.
1:34 wrong location

A very interesting video nonetheless.

[fpsmeter]

Been living in Cracow for my whole life. A lot of bad things can be said about city's urban planning, but the public transport is top notch.

[mdhazeldine]

The seperated junction is a thing of beauty. I'm impressed by the efficient adaptation of what they have already, even if it's not perfect or ideal.

[mattbear]

this is what Auckland really should have done. this was the whole original point of the light rail to the southwest and Airport proposed in 2016, something cheaper than commuter rail with more benefits by serving more suburbs and forcing a mode shift away from cars.

instead the project got bloated out by politicians obsessing over faster travel times, and what should have been a $2-3 billion dollar build turned out into a $15 billion almost-light metro that was cancelled by the current anti-public transport government... who want to take that money and spend it on motorways, while the NZ transit community still argues (as they have been since 2016) over whether commuter rail, metro, light rail, or busways are the best rapid transit solution in our cities.

light rail may be slower and have capacity limitations, but it would have been far better than what the southwest suburbs of Auckland are now getting - which is nothing at all.

[skllr_jo]

The system you described in this video is very similar to a light rail or stadbahn system, which is already used in almost all bigger german cities and it works really well

[alant]

I stayed in this lovely city for few days last year and can confirm that their tram system is a joy to use (and free for oldies!). It makes getting around so pleasant and straightforward.

[aaltag]

I was in Kraków as a tourist last summer. I stayed in a hostel around 1.5 km north of the historic center and traffic was hillariously bad during rushhour. Saw a bus just standing in the middle of a crossing with no way to move for like 3 minutes.

[adrianstere]

The problem in Krakow (as others already pointed out in the comment section) is not the tram infrastructure itself but the speed of the trams. The speed is very low (below 24 km) despite that there are moderns trams and the lines look fine.

I don’t understand why the trams can’t speed up more. Maybe it’s a regulation, maybe they are afraid of accidents, or maybe they just need to make the distance between stations larger so the trams can actually speed up.

Because if the speed doesn’t change many people will still choose the cars vs trams. It’s not enough to have a large light rail network and modern trams if the speed remains the same like 20 years ago!

[pbilk]

Yes. We need more of this in Canada. 🙂

[officialkurwol]

as a Krakow native, I used to think that our transit is bad and all and why isnt there a metro already... until i went to Naples. Holy...
There are a couple of minor mistakes in this video, but I have to agree with the main premise - this city is squeezing 100% out of its existing network and service is of almost excellent quality; at least when talking about the tram system, and excluding all the neighbourhoods which should be served by it but are not. Taking the bus here can devolve into a very nerve-wracking experience and there is just no alternative in some places.
However trams here aren't really that fast. The average speed of trams (including all the stops and red lights and everything) is around 22km/h. Compare that with 37km/h at M1 in Warsaw.
Could be worse though, Wrocław is a similar city in many metrics and the average speed is only around 18km/h there.