Park & Ride car parks are flourishing. The number of drivers using them has been increasing recently day by day.
In Warsaw urban agglomeration, drivers have eight P+R car parks in 7 locations at their disposal. A smaller place for 67 cars has been opened right next to tram terminus in Młociny. Car parks offer over 2500 places in total.
It’s getting more difficult to find a place…
Interchange car parks are so popular that in most of them there are no free places around 10 a.m. The situation looks better on ul. Połczyńska and in Anin where the object has been opened recently.
The car park in Anin is located next to the railway station where drivers can change for SKM trains and Koleje Mazowieckie (Masovian Railways). The car park is used by the residents from the nearby Old and New Anin and Wiśniowa Góra. It was particularly popular during the closure of Wał Miedzeszyński in time of spring flood. Its attendance also rose after opening SKM S-1 line to Otwock. Since then the number of cars parked there has been increasing which means that more and more people are willing to leave their “four wheels” on the outskirts and change for trains.
The biggest car park in Młociny has been filling up entirely. There are four floors with capacity for 1000 cars and 20 bicycles. The object is located in the neighborhood of an underground station and is one of the elements of the transport node used by several thousand passengers daily.
The interest in the car park is so big that ZTM gets many signals from passengers who demand increasing the number of parking places.
To improve the situation, ZTM overtook a public car park with 67 parking places and included it into the P+R system.
…but there will be new ones
There is a plan to open next car park in 2011 located in aleja Krakowska. The car park will have 400 places for cars and 100 for bicycles. It is being built just next to bus and tram terminus Okęcie and near to exit road to Kraków and Katowice. Drivers from Lesznowola, Michałowice, Raszyn and a part of Włochy will be able to use it.
Next year residents of Wawer will have “their” car park. It will provide them with a comfortable access to the city center. The journey by SKM and Koleje Mazowieckie (Masovian Railways) trains will last several minutes. More car parks are planned to be built along the route to enable more people to use railway services.
It is planned that by 2012, P+R system will have had over 4500 places. Next objects will be built according to the dominating trend based on limiting the entry of private vehicles into the city center. The pressure of passengers to build such car parks is rising.
Next investments are already in progress. Apart from car parks in aleja Krakowska and P+R Wawer, a construction in Ursus has started. It is situated near to the planned station Ursus – Niedźwiadek. A car park next to SKM station is being designed. In the second stage of expansion of the Park & Ride system (until 2012), there are plans to build car parks in Wesoła and Falenica. In case of the former location, ZTM has not received the land from PKP. As to Falenica, the process of issuing the location decision is in progress.
Ultimately, the whole system of Park & Ride is to consist of 30 objects. EURO 2012 will be a great challenge for the public transport. Although it is more than a year to the event, ZTM is already conducting preparatory works. According to UEFA recommendations, there must be 15000 parking places prepared in the capital city. That is why, apart from building next P+R objects, negotiations concerning co-operation with owners of car parks situated near shopping centers and in the places where there is good access to the city center are in progress.
Published 22 November 2010
Last modified 3 June 2019
