Geografia d'Europa: textos de suport

Introduction

The Stockholm region has about 1,8 million inhabitants and covers an area of 6000 km2. The region has 26 municipalities. The region is the economic, political and cultural centre of Sweden and an important economic and financial centre for the Nordic countries. The focus in regional planning has over last years become wider and include not only physical regional planning. Today issues related to economic growth and strengthening of the international competitiveness have become very important. Competence and research issues are also in focus. The economic potential of the Baltic Sea region in the last years offers new challenges and opportunities for the region. The region is active in a number of initiatives and co-operation projects in the Baltic Sea region. The development of gateway functions - such as airports and ports - is now a strategy for the region.
 
 

Globalisation and regional specialisation are main trends in economy today. Sweden is a small and open economy and is to a great extent influenced by this development. This is especially true for the Stockholm region, which has a faster growing economy than any other region in Sweden and the most diversified economy. The conditions for exchange of goods, services and knowledge with other regions get increasingly important. With a peripheral location, far from main markets, a well-developed air service is crucial for the economic development in the Stockholm region, since there for many destinations are no alternatives to go by air.

The airport infrastructure in the Stockholm region

Arlanda airport, situated 42 km north of city centre of Stockholm, is the main international airport in the Swedish airport system and the main hub for domestic traffic. It was opened in 1962 and replaced Bromma airport, situated close to the city centre, as the main airport for the Stockholm region. Scheduled airline service was dismissed from Bromma in the early 1980´s when all domestic traffic was gathered at Arlanda. Bromma was then only used for General Aviation until the deregulation in the beginning of the 1990´s when new airline companies started to operate scheduled service with aeroplanes that coped with the severe environmental restrictions that has been implemented for Bromma. In the greater Stockholm-Mälar region there are also two other airports with scheduled service, cargo and charter traffic - Stockholm-Skavsta, situated 100 km south-west of Stockholm, and Hässlö-Västerås, 100 km west of Stockholm on the northern side of Lake Mälaren. Both have formerly been military airfields, which have been converted to commercial airports. Arlanda is by far the dominant airport and Bromma, Skavsta and Västerås are minor regional airports.
 

Development of Arlanda Airport including new rail access

During the 1980´s the need of increasing the runway capacity at Arlanda became obvious, due to the rapid increase in air traffic, and the planning process for a third runway started. The Governmental approval to the third runway in the beginning of the 90´s stated some conditions. A railway connection to the airport had to be built before the third runway was opened for traffic and the total amount of emissions, from air traffic, land traffic and heating etc, of carbon dioxide and nitrogen oxides for the three-runway system should not exceed the amount of emissions in 1990.

The recession in the beginning of the 1990´s delayed the building of the third runway. It is now under construction and will be opened for traffic in 2002. With the third runway the capacity will be increased from 315 000 to 372 500 movements per year, or a peak capacity of 90 movement per hour, to be compared with 70 movements per hour for the two-runway system. Great investments will also be made on landside infrastructure.

The railway link that connects Arlanda airport to the national railway system is completed and an exclusive airport shuttle, Arlanda Express, will start to operate later this autumn. Travel time from city centre of Stockholm to the station under the terminals will be 20 minutes and the fare will be 120 SEK. The travel time with the existing airport bus service is 35-40 minutes and the fare is 60 SEK. The Arlanda Link is first major BOT-project in Sweden. The Arlanda tracks will also be used for inter-city and intra-regional trains which increases the accessibility to Arlanda from the Stockholm-Mälar region and gives an alternative to shorter domestic transfer flights.

The recession of the economy in the beginning of the 1990´s resulted in a significant drop in air traffic. International traffic recovered quite quickly and has been increasing since 1992. Domestic traffic started to grow again at Arlanda in the mid 1990´s. In 1998 the number of passengers at Arlanda was 16 millions, with an 8% increase during 1998, and there were 265 000 movements in scheduled and charter service. Cargo has not been a big business at Arlanda, but has increased from 70,000 to 150,000 tons per year during the 1990´s. There are approximately 14 000 employees at Arlanda Airport to day.
 

Regional impact of Arlanda and development around airport

Arlanda airport has had a notable impact on business and employment within the Stockholm region. Employment in Sigtuna municipality, where Arlanda is situated, is strongly dominated by airport related employment. Sigtuna municipality has the highest rate of jobs compared with the number of inhabitants outside the very core of the region. Still there are not many companies with high demand of international accessibility, except some logistic companies, that have settled in the vicinity of Arlanda. During the boom in the late 1980´s it was a strong expansion of commercial premises along the motorway from Stockholm to Arlanda, in what is called "The Arlanda corridor", but most premises were located closer to the regional centre.

A large business park, 300 hectares, was planned close to Arlanda in the late 1980´s but has not yet been occupied to a greater degree.
 

Need for new capacity - on-going study

The Swedish Civil Aviation Administration has in co-operation with the Office of Regional Planning and Urban Transportation at the Stockholm County Council carried out a study on the long-term need for airport capacity in the Stockholm region and how to supply for the need. It was handed over to the Government in March this year. The study indicates that the number of passengers to be handled yearly by airports in the Stockholm region in 2010 might very well be 24,5 million passengers (mppa) and in 2020 33 mppa. The conclusion is that there will be a need of increased runway capacity before be year of 2010. The existing airports in Västerås and Skavsta is considered to be too far away from the densely populated core of the region to satisfy the demand in a sufficient way. The alternatives to increase airport capacity are either to concentrate airport capacity to Arlanda and build a fourth and maybe a fifth runway or to establish a new airport in the southern part of the Stockholm region. The proposal is to first build a new airport in the southern part of the region and then a fourth runway at Arlanda.

One reason for the recommendation to build a new airport is the strong opinion that there is a need of two airports in the Stockholm region and since the agreement between the state and the City of Stockholm on the use of Bromma as an airport expires in 2011 there will be a need for a new second airport in the Stockholm region at that time. A second airport could handle qualified general aviation as private business jets which is regarded not possible to handle at Arlanda. An other motive for a new airport is the assumption that it would promote airline competition.
 

Regional implications generally

In the 1980´s there were plans for a new second airport in the southern part of the Stockholm region on local and regional initiatives. At that time intraregional balance motives were a strong driving force, since there are socio-economic differences between the northern and southern parts of the region. Today the focus in regional airport policies is rather on international accessibility for the region as a whole. For the economic development of the region good international accessibility is regarded to be crucial. For the municipalities in the vicinity of the proposed sites for a new airport the employment that an airport would generate is of course of great importance.
 
 

Port structure in the Stockholm-Mälar region

The public ports of some importance in the central Baltic Sea area are from north to south:
 

And in lake Mälaren:

The volume of goods is largest in Stockholm with almost 6 Mt per year. Oxelösund and Norrköping have between 4 and 5 Mt each, Gävle between 3 and 4, and Nynäshamn (including the private oil port), Västerås, Köping and Kapellskär have all around 2 Mt per year. Södertälje has about 0,7 Mt and Hargshamn less than 0,2 Mt since they lost the ferry line to Nystad (Uusikaupunkki) in Finland.

Ferry traffic is dominated by Stockholm with daily traffic to Helsinki, Turku, Mariehamn and Tallinn. Kapellskär, which is a pure ferry port, has also traffic to the finnish ports and is also developing traffic to Paldiski in Estonia. Nynäshamn has daily (domestic) traffic to Gotland and also traffic to Poland. Gävle, Hargshamn, Södertälje, Oxelösund and Norrköping have all had ferry lines but none or very limited today.

Stockholm, Gävle, Västerås and Norrköping handle at least 20,000 container units (TEU) per year and Södertälje 10,000 TEU. Gävle, Stockholm, Nynäshamn, Södertälje, Oxelösund, Norrköping and Västerås have oil ports with between 0,5 and 2 Mt/year.
 

New/expanded harbour in Nynäshamn

Ports of Stockholm, who is also owner of the ferry ports of Kapellskär and Nynäshamn, is planning a new port north of Nynäshamn, Norvik, for ro/ro, container and bulk transport and in a second stage also ferry terminal. The assessment of volume development before 2010 is 1,5-2 Mt on 150 000 trailers per year and 100 000 TEU (containers). In the second stage (2020-2030) the volume is estimated to be almost doubled. An upgrading of the road (Rv 73) between Stockholm and Nynäshamn is important.

New maritime routes through the archipelago

The routes through the Stockholm archipelago has some narrow parts with environment and safety problems. There are restrictions for big ships to go to Stockholm in bad weather and darkness. These restrictions and also impact on shores by the waves could be reduced by a new sea route, "Horstensleden". It needs removing a small rock and (of course) new heavy traffic in till now less disturbed areas.

Development of maritime transport in the Baltic Sea area

The trade and transport between , to and from the Baltic countries has developed rapidly in the last years and is expected to continue its growth, at least the Baltic states. The development in Russia is less certain because of the unstable political and economic situation. The trade in transition countries is generally growing with about 8 to 10 percent per year. The trade of the Baltic countries has been estimated to grow eight times in the next 15 to 20 years.

Summing-up

The present planning process regarding airports and ports is integrated in the process for the new regional - Regional Plan 2000. A draft for consultations will be ready in the spring next year. The integrated planning of land use and transportation infrastructure is an important part of the planning goals. The planning work is done in close co-operation with the municipalities and other relevant planning agencies.
 
 

Fuente: METREX
http://www.metrex.dis.strath.ac.uk/