Role of railway traffic in public urban and suburban passenger transport (example of the City of Zagreb)

One of the basic problems of all the mid-size and bigger European cities is not only the permanent increase in the demand for passenger transport services, but also the increase in individual automobile traffic. Apart from environmental pollution such urban mobility results in constant road congestion in urban areas, also endangering the safety of traffic participants. All European cities face these problems, which directly affect the quality of life of residents, attractiveness and economic development. In order to increase mobility and at the same time to reduce the congestion, traffic accidents and environmental pollution, it is necessary to reduce and limit the individual traffic in urban and suburban traffic systems, and increase the share of railway traffic, which has a series of direct and indirect comparative advantages over other traffic modes (very low harmful emissions, lower energy consumption, higher speed which allows significant savings in travel time, stimulation of suburban zones development, etc.). Therefore, the railway should have a dominant role in urban and suburban passenger transport, i.e. it should be the fundamental part of the system, which is upgraded by other subsystems. This paper studies the role and significance of the railways in public urban and suburban passenger transport in the City of Zagreb. Apart from the analysis of the existing situation on public urban transport in the City of Zagreb and the current role of the railway in the public urban transport (PUT) system, which has not been sufficiently used yet, special emphasis is given to the projection of the future role of railways in the PUT flow, including the new routes, which would along with the existing infrastructure allow the railways a greater share and a more significant role in the PUT system.