Graz has been growing for years – and the more people who live in our city, the more passengers also need to be carried by public transport from A to B in comfort and safety. But that is only one reason why a lot of money has been spent for many years on the expansion of public transport and making it more attractive. This will continue to be the case in the next few years too.
Other hugely important reasons are compliance with climate protection targets that can be reached if more people change over to using the tram and bus and ensuring an effective intermodal distribution of public transport from the high-level rail network to the tram network.
It is not only connections that are to be newly built or improved – ideas for improvement are continuously being examined in areas such as passenger information or sales.
All projects envisaged for this, many of which have already been implemented, can be found in the so-called “Master plan public transport” which was developed in a joint project group between Graz Linien and the traffic planning department of the city of Graz and adopted by the municipal council of the city of Graz.
Several projects from the “Master plan public transport” will be implemented or completed in 2021 – these include:
- new tram route to Reininghaus (will be put into operation at the end of 2021)
- new tram route to the Smart City Waagner-Biro-Straße (will be put into operation at the end of 2021)
- change in the bus lines 62, 65, 66, 85 (“bus network Graz-West level 2”) from the end of 2021
- consolidation of the bus line 41 from the autumn of 2021
- purchase of additional articulated buses to improve timetables for the bus lines
- partial double-track expansion of Line 1 in Mariatroster Tal
- planning on the double-track expansion of Line 5 along Triester Straße
- planning on the construction of a tram route via Andreas-Hofer-Platz (alleviation of the burden on the city centre)
- planning on the construction of a tram route via Griesplatz to the south-west
- purchase of new and longer trams plus expansion of the workshops and sheds