Capacity of Tramways Increases in Samsun

The number of passengers in the light rail system, which is one of the arteries that bear the highest load in public transportation in Samsun, is increasing day by day. Trams carrying 2021 thousand passengers per day in 70 reached 2022 thousand passengers per day in 90. President Mustafa Demir said, “Within the scope of our work, we can make our trams reach a length of 42 meters. This means a capacity increase of nearly 40 percent. We continue to work on this issue,” he said.

SAMULAŞ, a subsidiary of Samsun Metropolitan Municipality, continues to serve passengers at full capacity. The Metropolitan Municipality took action to increase the capacity of the light rail system, which is one of the most preferred public transportation vehicles. Stating that the number of daily passengers in the rail system has increased from 70 thousand to 92 thousand, President Mustafa Demir said, “The rail system is one of our most important transportation arteries. However, from time to time, we witness our citizens expressing the intensity, especially during peak hours. At this point, we worked on 'what can we do'. Technically, we can add 1-2 more trains at most. However, when we add trains, we will completely close the vertical crossings,” he said.

“Therefore, within the scope of our work, we have seen that the most accurate result is to add additional cabins to the trains instead of buying additional trains. We can make our trams reach a length of 42 meters. This means a capacity increase of nearly 40 percent. By purchasing seven new trains, we have increased the capacity. With this operation, we will modernize the high-cost equipment such as drive units and gearboxes of our 16 trains, which we purchased in the first stage. Especially in our vehicles, we are faced with malfunctions caused by intensive use. Our goal is to make the rail system comfortable for the environment with its intensive use of increased capacity and fault-free in the future, in line with the works we will do. Studies were carried out by SAMULAŞ. We also made the necessary correspondence with our Strategy Department at the point of investment. As soon as we get permission from there, we will take the necessary step. By adding a cabin to all trains, we will increase the capacity up to 120 thousand passengers per day.”

Noting that a tram can carry 280 passengers at the moment, Samsun Metropolitan Municipality Mayor Mustafa Demir said, “When the capacity increase works are completed, the passenger capacity of a tram will increase to 400. Thus, a significant increase in capacity will be achieved,” he said.