Why I (still) don't want U" - The need for a new Athens map of fixed-track transport

Where not a single spade has been used, there is time to prevent mistakes. I am referring to the U-shaped line, part of the Athens metro planning for nine years as if nothing has changed. It was recently announced that, with a bit of good will (i.e. cash and final designs), the 12 km between Galatsi and Goudi are feasible [see link]. The goal seems down-to-earth, just one-third of the original 33 km, certainly more realistic than the outrageous "paper drills" of the 2009 Regulatory Plan [see Link].

But I still "don't want U" [see link], same as in 2010. For more or less the same reasons.

- In 2005 (and as late as the end of 2009) we were thinking that money is there. Securitization, i.e. loans to be paid back by future revenues, was in fashion. On the Athens Ring Road's (Attiki Odos') handover to the Greek State tolls would be maintained so as to pay back the loans for construction of a giant metro line [see link]. This (theoretical) ease inspired design largesse. That's over now.

- Athens' current fixed-track network is still underperforming. A few days ago the minister, the same minister that (again) promised the fourth metro line, inaugurated a suburban rail station at Tavros [see link]. (Parenthesis: Fortunately, thanks to the damned George Papandreou, the same minister is  now responsible for both urban and suburban trains - there used to be separate ministries for Public Works and for Transport). Unfortunately, trains pass only every two hours through this new station, located in a neighbourhood just outside downtown Athens [see link]. Instead of being the metro of west and north Athens, as it could, the suburban rail is virtually unexploited. This cannot last forever. Someone, sometime will put on the map this worthwhile fixed-track network. And they will see that it covers the centre, the port, the airport as well as the business node of Maroussi. Not bad. If the suburban rail is taken into acccount, one can see the metro network's "shortcomings" in a different light. Different kinds of questions will then be posed, such as:

(1) Is it worth building a new metro line along Kifissias Ave. when the suburban rail can take you directly from [Maroussi's] OTE building and Skyscraper City to Athens and Piraeus?

(2) How "deprived" of a metro are the working-class neighbourhoods west of the Kifissos River, given that the metro reaches Peristeri, a new line (under construction) will link Aegaleo to Piraeus and there is also the suburban line from Piraeus to Liossia and Menidi?

From that viewpoint, only a few areas remain to be covered. Practically we are left with the densely-populated Kypseli, north of the centre, and the zone either side of Syngrou Ave. [see link]. These two could be linked by a fixed-track route passing through the centre.

I've got news for you. This route already exists and it is called the tram. Today it links the seafront and Nea Smyrni with Syntagma Sq. In conjunction with the redesign of Panepistimiou Str. (whichever form this may take) it will reach Aigyptou Sq. [near the archaeological museum]. By extending it northwards, it is possible to serve - gradually and at a fraction of the cost for an equivalent metro length - an area dependent for decades on jammed trolleybuses. If tram now causes an allergy similar to that which led to the abolition of its old Athens network after 1955, we don't have to go as far as Brussels and its pre-metro, i.e. the light-rail network that evolved into a metro [see link]. In Athens' Plakentias to Airport stretch we have the first successful track-sharing case Greece. A fixed-track network (on condition of a normal gauge, i.e. the metric network of the late 19th century, fit for the museums, is not included) may accommodate a large spectrum of trains. If a line (open to modifications) is in place, everything is feasible, at the right time.

The U line exists on paper since 2005. It replaced the metro design's original plans for branches of the main lines towards Galatsi and Maroussi [see link] - branches being problematic from an operational viewpoint. With time the U line itself acquired, of course, its own branch, once the heroic Vyronas municipality demanded to have metro service. Moreover, I sadly saw that the recent announcement featured a repetition of the bad example applied in the current SW metro terminal of Haidari a.k.a. "Agia Marina" [see link - i.e. an edge-of-town station next to the Aegaleo mountainside. This is now to be replicated across the town, with a station to be named Near East - whereas Far East would be a  more appropriate name, at this remote location between the Shooting Range and Mount Imittos.

To put it plainly: A metro is expensive to build and therefore it is customary to align it amid sufficient bread - i.e. along busy, radial routes in densely built-up areas. 

In order to make courageous decisions, it is important to take a comprehensive look, not a partial one. As already mentioned, a proper map will be of assistance - as pictured but with an equivalently thick line also for the suburban rail (not the thin one used on purpose in order to underplay its potential). The essence behind such a map would be the integration of urban and suburban fixed-track services in one single body, not the exception of the former Greek Railways (OSE) - the latter to be incorporated in a supposedly lucrative package, heard of for years but not visible yeet. We won't live to see a new 2004. A lot of tears were shed for the crumbling stadiums ten years after the games. As a transport engineer I hope others too will speak out about the need to get disengaged from pharaonic project-mongering and to fully utilize the, not insignificant, networks our country obtained at a time when we all believed it was entering the next level.

All links are in Greek

 

Let's get energetic

The Greek version of this post appeared on 27 Dec 2012

A few days before Christmas, on a Piraeus street, without a single grill house at a radius of at least 100 metres, I thought a grill party was going on. It was a bit less tasty than that, for my nose.

There was an explanation for this, my fellow-traveller gave it to me. It seemed reasonable. A few evenings later, I got convinced. It was Christmas Eve and the same smell dominated the south Athens exterior coastal highway - quite far from the zone of influence of any souvlaki-house.

I parked my car outdoors in Kallithea, a southern Athens suburb full of blocks-of-flats (with scarce indoor parking spaces). One and a half days later, the windscreen had ashes on it.

Four-plus-million-strong Athens now burns far more wood than ever. Reduced incomes and increased taxation have forced many households (and companies) to limit consumption (which is not necessarily a bad idea, the old TV ad with "grandpa in T-shirt" was an exaggeration by all means) while looking for "alternatives" - albeit, ones causing additional problems of their own.

Unfortunately, the consumer's own choices cannot alone lead to greater energy efficiency. For the game is "fixed", regulated by the State through taxation. Equalizing taxation for heating oil with that  of vehicle diesel was a violent act. It was also strongly advertised: allegedly for fighting illegal trade (meaning, enforcement had failed); however, they failed to mention that Germany, a generally exemplary country, is one of several countries that still apply differential taxation (vehicle diesel is generally 50% more expensive than heating oil in the EU's largest economy).

It is not absurd that so many people turn to "something cheaper", such as:
- Natural gas (sometimes LPG too) - also subject to a totally controlled oligopoly, the State can do pretty much whatever it wants regarding taxation.
- Electricity - convectors, heat pumps, even "silly" energy-devouring fan heaters or winter airconditioners. There too, the Public Power Corporation - precisely, those Frankenstein companies / authorities created by so-called liberalization - maintains a State monopoly and does whatever it wants.
- Wood or "pellets" for fireplaces, stoves and other "traditional"-style, smelly heaters. Sometimes, sophisticated solutions (or makeshift ones) are being applied, in the spirit of "central" heating (hot water or air flowing in the whole home). At other times it's simply that standards get lowered, so that we feel hot in the living room, get rolled up in our bedrooms and simply shiver in the bathroom. Some people call this wretchedness. Worse, the need for hard savings leads also to the degradation of other quality standards, not just comfort:
(1) Safety: Cleanness and maintenance require cost (and care). Things were simple with the mass product called "central heating in blocks-of-flats". New tricks come with new knowledge to be mastered.
(2) Environmental impact: Shall we see again centrally-placed electronic signs informing us about the values of pollutants? Shall the overall impacts (at town and even country levels) of this dramatic change in habits ever be measured?
(3) Energy efficiency: At the end of the day, in a world seeking a more viable balance between energy production and consumption, especially in a country still based on imports for covering its energy needs (oil, gas), taxation-inflicted distortions can hardly lead to efficiency. I will consume what (seemingly) costs me less, which nevertheless does not necessarily lead to wiser use of (truly) limited resources.
To be fair, distortions are caused not only by taxation but also by the very oligopolistic structure of the energy market (the oil cartels et cetera) as well as political tensions and fixations.
- "Taboos" (e.g. nuclear energy) are not uniquely Greek - see Merkel's "green reaction" after Fukushima.
- "Green growth", too, wasn't of course only George Papandreou's vision. Here, it's true that the lack of policy was masked under an impressive new ministry title (headed by Tina Birbili), with "Climate Change" added to its name; also, solar energy "entrepreneurship" was promised "to the people" (not to mention the recycling factories which, according to some Pasok people back in 2009, would serve all of the Balkans - not an energy issue admittedly, hence no further mention here); finally, an energy certificate requirement came into force, little more than a job opportunity for several fellow-engineers with decreasing workloads during the recession. Whether our homes become more "energy efficient" just because an engineer spends a couple of hours - for 200 EUR - to get a "paper" issued, this you can judge for yourselves.

Last but not least: the unspeakable behaviour (roguish farting, pardon my French - full of methane) of some politicians and journalists towards an MEP who dared say that "the king has no clothes", that is, the search for specific energy sources (fossil fuels) will not necessarily lead to economic, environmental or energy benefits for the country. I think that this attitude is part of the package also including "ecologists" bothered by wind generators...

Cartoons and safety distances

One doesn't need to go back to the times of cavemen to prove the lasting importance of illustration. Quoting Chinese proverbs is not necessary either. Everyday life features plenty of meaningful images. For many decades now, even centuries, this everyday reality includes cartoons. Maybe there exist some people who dislike the genre - but I think these are very few. Personally I have always sought for cartoons, in the "grown-up's" print I came across. Some magazines regularly featured such figures as the Stingy Man [Spangorammenos in Greek]; later I learned to distinguish the styles of several newspaper cartoonists, domestic ones at first (Skoulas in the Greek daily Apogevmatini being my earliest such memory) and later world-famous celebrities (e.g. Plantu). I must admit that the simultaneous presence of many cartoonists at the Rion Antirion Bridge (in 2005, I think) was one of the most hilarious company events I ever participated in.

A cartoon can be extremely powerful, we all know that. Trudeau (the Doonesbury strip creator, dealing primarily with American topics - familiar to me through the International Herald Tribune) had annoyed Sinatra when, shortly after a public honour, showed him as being friends with organized crime figures. 

As for Adams, creator of Dilbert (a satire primarily of large firms' employees and executives), he has remarked that the very proximity of a popular person to other, deplorable persons (or things, or situations) is often a reason to get offended. He is himself a casualty of this, since some faithful people criticized him for the following strip, in which - he claims - the gullibility of "souvenir" collectors had been the main object of satire.

The recent furor over a cartoon by Hantzopoulos [depicted below] is of a similar nature, even if the popularity of the two female MP's implied in it (Mrs Konstantopoulou and Mrs Makri) is far less than that of Sinatra or of Our Lord. The proximity pattern is present here, too. The cartoonist targets the impression-mongering (the two MPs had climbed Greek state TV's railings in a protest) - at the same time, though, the pole-dancing metaphor as well as an alluding phrase used ("will they do anything else as well?") are violating the line which, in the minds of many people, should separate a public figure (in particular a woman) from "abuse of their bodies". 

If you're asking myself, I had considered a similar matter almost 8 years ago, after a Dane had drawn a picture of Prophet Muhammad. I have re-read what I had written back then and I realize it is also valid for me today, word for word, therefore - instead of another conclusion - I choose to copy it in full (the original was in Greek only).

In favour of the irreverent 

04.02.06 at 20:08 EET
Denmark's organized society hasn't been known in recent years for their sympathy to foreigners, especially if these are dark-coloured and/or slit-eyed - such as the Danes' nominal fellow citizens from Greenland, for example. So, at first sight, racist superiority feelings could have been diagnosed in the famous caricatures satirizing Prophet Muhammad - and Muslims treading on the Danish flag in cities all over the world wouldn't have made one too sad. 

The problem with the avalanche of dismissals, bans and "political correctness" that followed the publication of the notorious cartoons is, of course, more serious. I found it very interesting to read opinions reflecting two different approaches to satire - and to free expression, in general. 

One approach, the same one that my friends and myself have followed in [our satirical webpage] www.laspi.gr, has been very eloquently described by the great Greek cartoonist Costas Mitropoulos in Ta Nea paper: making a cartoon (or an article) "respectful and harmful at the same time". It entails a certain degree of self-censorship and has the advantage of usability (should the need ever arise) also in countries or environments (corporate etc.) where freedom of expression is subject to certain limitations (greater or lesser ones). 

The other approach lies in testing the limits of the respective environment, taking your risks of course but, at the end, almost inevitably widening the scope for acceptability (and narrowing the forbidden zone). It is the daring ones that open the road towards greater liberty. I find it hard to follow their way but I do admire them and I think history will be on their side.

How each mass medium and each country will handle that matter is their own business. Let me simply point out that, if a similar satire had been made regarding Jesus, the reaction would have been limited to announcements by the Vatican or to lawsuits at worst. It is the fear of violent retaliation by Muslim "suicide bombers", not any kind of great sensitivity towards religious feelings, that very obviously dictates the hasty "wrap-up" of the Prophet cartoons issue. This, however, is in my opinion the very definition of terrorism.

Bursa, out of nowhere

It seemed unlikely that that city would start standing out. What did we know about it? That it had been the first capital of the Ottomans, when they settled "for good" across the declining Queen of Cities. That the area was called Bithynia, which I sometimes confused with Palestine's Bethany, while at other times I (equally erroneously) believed it belongs to the Pontus. That it is historically related to the [Greek village of] Prousos, which I heard the locals pronounce Poursos, with the "oo" in front of the "r", as in the Turkish name of the city (Bursa). That, finally, tourist agencies added it even in short tours of Istanbul and the Prince's Islands, for those that wanted to add a bit more "oriental flavour".

Suddenly, last year I discovered that Turkey's fourth largest city, too, is about to compete with the Athens basin - Izmir had already reached the Greek capital's population level. Bursa is approaching 2 million. Besides our neighbours' overall rural exodus, Bursa has certainly also been "lifted up" by its industrial growth, including the automotive industry: we already knew Tofaş as a basketball team sponsor - it is the local Fiat plant, there is also a Renault factory there.

The town has a "tough" terrain, being built at the foot of the Great Mountain, Uludağ - another Olympus of ancient times - see an earlier article of mine (in Greek). Its central area, with the most important monuments (such as the Great Mosque and the Koza Han), is on a hillside. However, a metro line with two branches is already in operation (Salonika, do you read me?), as is a "retro" tramway similar to Istanbul's (a green one though, in the true Bursa colour, not red as in Beyoğlu). Moreover, road projects in the area are not negligible. An orbital motorway is already in operation, far beyond the inner by-pass arterial. More importantly: the link to the most populous Turkish city is being upgraded in an impressive fashion.

How? With what is perhaps the longest suspension bridge of our broad region (Balkans - Near East). Independently of any big sporting events or of God's will (regarding the Turkish leader's lifespan), prime minister Erdoğan would definitely like the Izmit Bay crossing project to go ahead. An almost pharaonic project, maybe a bit arrogant and audacious - a few kilometres to the west of the 1999 major earthquake's epicentre. Its practical usefulness is undoubted, as today's link between 10+ million-strong Istanbul and 2 million-strong Bursa is either via a long detour or via ferry. (There is the direct Istanbul-Mudanya line, a 2-hour trips similar to Rafina-Andros in Greece, or the Gebze-Yalova car ferry, resembling Rion-Antirion). Note the population sizes, nothing to do with the Economist's "nowhere much to nowhere at all" description, which had so enraged us at the time of the Olympic fever (2004).

But times have changed, banks are cautious about the Turkish boom, they fear it could be another "bubble". Therefore, the large-scale project - also including the full motorway between Istanbul (Gebze, to be precise) and Izmir - is having difficulty in obtaining the required funding. This year, they managed to rally 8 Turkish banks (not a single foreign one...) for the first phase, up to Bursa. Nobody knows what will happen with the second phase and whether beloved Izmir will ever be linked via motorway to the rest of the world. Maybe it doesn't even need to.

I must agree with the "moustached man" (Erdoğan): generally, nobody knows how the next day may dawn. Regarding the bridge, however, I believe there is no turning back. They will do it - and they'll make it strong, by means also of Japanese technology (and the know-how already existing from the two Bosphorus bridges, suspension structures both). Works have already advanced to such a degree that navigation is affected every now and then.

So maybe in a few years' time trips between Istanbul and Bursa will be easy to make within a single day. Unless the fans of Rafina Thyella (thanks to AEK [a historic football club relegated to the 3rd division] we will learn a lot of such teams now!) decide to take advantage of the bridge's existence in order to visit the land of their ancestors. No rush is recommended for such a trip, picturesque Zeytinbağı / Trilye is awaiting them several kilometres to the north, at a seaside location with quite a few Orthodox church ruins. (Triglia was the original and long-time name of refugee settlement Rafina.)

In order to manage everything, the visitor should definitely plan at least one overnight stay at the city of Karagöz and Hacivat (there even exists a relevant museum at Bursa). And, since they'll stay for the night, they might as well (like I did) try the delicacies of a great kebap house and finish their evening at the Arap Şükrü pedestrian street*, which refuted my fear that the city of the Great Mosque is so "devout" as to lack any trace of nightlife.

*more on that, some other time...