- Improve access to and from certain city districts, offer transport to the largest possible number of inhabitants and to current or future demand zones in the city centre
- Develop a form of rational carbon footprint mobility as a replacement for personal motorised travel
Reduce at-grade personal motorised travel and road congestion in the city - Offer the opportunity to political decision makers and urban planners to redesign the architecture of the intermodal public transport network around a metro backbone
- Strengthen institutional capability to embrace environmental approaches such as the avoid-reduce-compensate sequence and eco-design analyses, in particular in the depot.
Offering the capital a modern metropolitan network for everyone.
Belgrade, Serbia
For more than 10 years, Egis has supported the City of Belgrade and its metro company BMV in delivering this project of national importance which will improve the quality of life, develop the appeal of the city and stimulate economic growth.
Client
Beogradski Metro i Voz (BMV) – City of Belgrade
Timeline
2011-2013 and from 2018 onward to 2023
Key figures.
21 kmLength of North-South Line 1
23 kmLength of East-West Line 2
46stations in total
21 stations on line 1 and 25 stations on line 2.
Environmental and social benefits.
The challenge.
The priority objective of the Republic of Serbia consists of developing the capital’s urban and suburban public transport network by building a metro system to complement the other existing modes of transport: bus routes, trolleybuses, light rail lines and suburban rail services (run by BGVoz).
While the market share of public transport is generally high (48% of journeys), it is nonetheless declining today, in particular due to a rise in car ownership in the population. As a result of road congestion, the poor state of some rolling stock and the use of ageing infrastructure, the average commercial speed on the public transport network is quite low (13 km/h) and is getting slower year after year, leading to significant increases in operating costs.
Furthermore, worsening pollution caused by the saturation of road arteries has prompted the authorities to move to create a metro network which is now vital to enable mobility to develop properly in the capital.
Imagine.
An interconnected metropolitan network.
Following the signature of an agreement between the Serbian and French governments, the French Treasury supplied Serbia with funding to cover part of the first phase of the Belgrade metro project. The operation is the largest infrastructure investment in this part of Europe (a cumulative amount of approximately €7 bn) for a total of three metro lines (running 65 km in all):
- Line 1 running from north to south: from Mirijevo to Železnik, approximately 21 km and 21 stations.
- Line 2 from east to west: from Mirijevo to Bezanija, running 23 km with 25 stations.
- Ligne 3, from south east to west: from Oslobodenja to Bezanija, 21 km long with 21 stations.
In 2019 Egis completed the Pre-feasibility study for lines 1 and 2; then in 2021 delivered the conceptual design for line 3.
Since 2020, Egis has been developing the Preliminary Designs and the Feasibility Study for phase 1 of line 1, phase 2 of line 1, and line 2.
Preparatory works have already commenced around the depot, and line 1 is scheduled for completion in 2030, while line 2 should be commissioned several years later. Line 3 is planned to start operations further in the future.
Create.
International cooperation.
Showcasing French expertise
In addition to awarding the design work to Egis, the Serbian authorities identified their partners for the supply of trains and systems – the French company Alstom – and for the civil works: the Chinese firm Powerchina. The operation takes the form of a Design & Build contract with these two leaders.
The design perimeter awarded to Egis relates to the preliminary designs, in accordance with Serbian construction and infrastructure law (IDR and IDP, respectively conceptual design and conceptual project development + feasibility study). Egis’ tasks also include the environmental design of the project (environmental and social impact assessment / ESIA) and the drafting of technical specifications and requirements to be included in the future contracts of the Design & Build contractors, Powerchina and Alstom.
Egis’ teams thereby contribute all their know-how and international experience of railway and urban projects, while observing the specificities of local rules and processes. Design is therefore necessarily shared between different group entities, with most of it going to the French and Serbian teams. As a result, the Egis design office based in Belgrade, which also covers all Egis’ activities in the Balkan zone, has grown quickly. In addition, the Belgrade metro project has created multiple synergies between teams and, locally, developed skills in the Serbian engineering team.
Egis at the centre of the design of the first two lines
The preliminary design and feasibility studies of metro lines 1 and 2 required the following assignments to be conducted:
- Demand analysis, ridership forecasts, location and sizing of park and ride facilities
- Definition of inter-modality principles on the network, its application to the projects for each line, and the principles for the reorganisation of the bus network, to be implemented on the launch of the two metro lines
- Feasibility studies of the two metro lines, considering the different alignment and insertion options, in particular for stations
- Social, economic and financial impact assessments for each line
- The technical studies covering civil engineering, tunnels and underground ventilation
- The drawing up of sequential schedules for the construction of the two lines
- The formulation of bills of quantities and cost estimates for works at preliminary design stage.
Line 1 provides services to the Mirijevo district in the north east of the city, also running through the old port district of Belgrade on the right bank of the Danube, where an ambitious urban brownfield project is being planned. From north to south, line 1 passes through the historical city centre, the new Belgrade Waterfront district, then Belgrade Exhibition Centre and Ada Ciganlija on the west bank of the Sava River and as far as the future urban development zone at Makis, south of Belgrade.
Line 2 crosses the old town from east to west, connects with line 1 at Mirijevo and Sava Square; it crosses the Sava River at Belgrade Waterfront then runs through the residential and business districts of New Belgrade and continues on to the outlying district of Zemun on the western edge of the city.
Line 3 also provides services to New Belgrade, crosses the Sava River, connects with line 1 on Republic Square, at the heart of Belgrade’s historical centre, and offers interchange options with the main railway stations of BGVoz.
Achieve.
A revitalised and boosted capital.
Reducing pollution and the externalities of road traffic
The Belgrade metro will contribute to substantially restraining the growth of road traffic, reducing above-ground congestion and its visual and noise disturbances, and helping to cut pollution by encouraging modal shift from cars to the metropolitan network and the connecting public transport solutions.
Improving the quality of life of Belgradians
The metro network aims to improve access to certain districts in the city and encourage mobility with a low carbon footprint. It will also have a positive impact on the population’s purchasing power, as public transport is cheaper than running a car.
By reinforcing its transport linkage, the City of Belgrade will be able to maintain its status as a regional capital and continue to develop while remaining an enjoyable city to live in, promoting rational carbon footprint mobility.
Reinforcing the appeal of the city
The metro network will contribute to giving further value to the real estate in the districts located near the future metro lines and stations. It is also considered to be a powerful vector for urban development.
Indeed, Belgrade is an attractive city in the Balkan region. French, European and international investors consider the city and Serbia to be worthwhile locations for investment, thanks to the quality of infrastructure, the availability of labour and proximity to other European cities (through a good network of airline routes). The construction of a metro network will amplify this momentum of improving attractiveness in the heart of the capital. On its completion, the fully automatic metro will be de facto one of the most modern in the world and will constitute a showcase for the city and the country.