Impacts of a Metro Station to the Land Use and Transport System: The Thessaloniki Metro Case

The paper deals with the interaction between the transport and land use system in an urban area having as a case study the Thessaloniki Metro (which is an on-going project) and especially one of its main stations (the Papafi station) which is located outside the city centre. The Thessaloniki basic metro line will have a length of 9.6 km, with 13 stations. The construction phase initiated in June 2006. The only experience in the country so far about the impacts of a metro station to the transport and land use system comes from the city of Athens where there is an extensive metro network. The research presented in this paper is based on analytical recording of the land use system characteristics within a buffer zone of 500 m. around the Papafi station and also on a Stated Preference (SP) survey addressed to the residents and visitors in the study area. The connection of the study area with the inner ring road of the city, which is a critical issue for the integrated transport planning process, is also examined within the paper. Appropriate maps with the transport and land use data were produced using the Geographical Information System technology. The interpretation of the inter-relationships among the selected data from the SP survey took place using the method of Principal Components Analysis for Categorical Data. It is estimated the methodology followed and the research results can contribute to the enrichment of the existing experience concerning the way a metro station affects the land use system as well as the trip characteristics in its near area.