Residents of the Rogerius neighborhood are worried. The train-tram line that will connect Oradea with the neighboring towns will join Corneliu Coposu and Ștefan cel Mare streets through Lacul Roșu street on its way to the CFR train station. “I’m not against the development, but it will increase the noise and congestion on the street and there could be expropriations to make way for the line,” says the owner of a house in the area.
The initiators claim, however, that the project will only have beneficial effects: not only will there be no expropriations, but the value of properties in the area will also increase…
With the tram on the train line!
Prepared by CJ Bihor and Oradea City Hall, the tram-train line project in the Metropolitan Area, estimated at 235 million euros, involves the interconnection of the tram lines in the city with the train lines in the neighboring communes. Thus, the people of Oradea could reach the airport, Băile Felix or Borș by tram, and the people of Bihor from Sântandrei and Girișu de Criș could come to work in the city on the railway line, giving up their cars. “The project will increase mobility, reduce pollution and support development in the area”, says the vice president of CJ Bihor, Mircea Mălan (photo).
The investments aim at rehabilitating and electrifying the existing train and tram networks, with the latter being extended with single-wire lines for tram-train vehicles, capable of using both the 25,000-volt rail power supply system and and on the tram, 600 volts.
In addition to the construction of railway lines, stations, platforms and pedestrian crossings, the project also includes the purchase of 8 tram-trains with a hybrid power system, both from the OTL network and from batteries capable of ensuring an autonomy of 3 kilometers, such as and 5 rail-type vehicles that can use both the CFR and OTL fuel system.
Site preparations
Publicly announced at the end of last year, the project is gaining momentum. “By the end of this month, we will receive the feasibility study, after which we will approve the expropriation corridors and submit the financing application,” says Mircea Mălan. It must be said, however, that the project promoted by CJ Bihor in partnership with SNCFR has already been selected by the Minister of Transport, so the funding is actually secured.
The works will also concern the electrification of the railway areas to Toboliu and Băile Felix, the construction of new tram lines to the airport and to Borș, the extension of the one from the end of the Nufărul district to the train line to Băile Felix, as well as the construction of a connection between the tram line from Coposu street and the CFR station, through Lacul Roșu street and Ștefan cel Mare boulevard.
“The tenders will be completed in the autumn, and the works could start in the spring of next year”, says Mălan. Especially since they must be completed by 2027…
“No one asked us”
The project worries some of the residents of Oradea in Rogerius. The most disturbed are the residents of Lacul Roșu street, where the single-wire tram line will be built that will connect Corneliu Coposu and Ștefan cel Mare streets. According to the project, it will have a width of 5 meters and will “bite” from the small park on Lacul Roșu, which will be narrowed, but also from a parking lot that will lose approximately 25 out of 50 places.
The route will continue on the site of the Elefant self-service car wash, and then on Ștefan cel Mare street and towards the railway lines, across the four lanes of the boulevard, somewhere halfway to the CFR train station.
“No one asked us what we thought about the project. Neither that we like it, nor that we don’t,” says the administrator of the Lacul Roșu Owners Association, Varvara Lazău. However, residents fear that the introduction of the streetcar will reduce the value of their properties. “As if the noise from the McDonald’s restaurant wasn’t enough, now we will also have a tram,” comments a neighbor.
Fear of moving
Unlike residents of blocks of flats, who may only lose their parking spaces, the most worried are the owners of houses. “I don’t want to be expropriated for money for nothing so that the City Hall can build a tram line or, worse, parking lots for the residents of the block”, says the owner of a house.
The most angry is the owner of the laundry at the Lacul Roșu – Ștefan cel Mare intersection, on the edge of which the line will pass. The entrepreneur occupies a land concession from the City Hall, so he can be evicted based on a simple notification. “The town hall can always tell me ‘Move’, but 70% of the assets are tanks and installations buried in the ground, which I have no way of moving”, says the man, adding that “I don’t know what I will do”.
The houses remain, the laundry does not!
To reassure the residents, the initiators of the project promise that they will not expropriate. “The tram line from Lacul Roșu street will pass on the edge of the existing park only on the city’s land”, says the vice-president of the CJ Bihor, Mircea Mălan.
Mayor Florin Birta assures the same (photo): “We will not demolish anything, neither for the tram line, nor for the arrangement of parking lots. We will find solutions to replace the abolished places”. Regarding the laundry, however, the mayor is clear: “The laundry has no way of working in parallel with the construction site. When the work starts, he will have to leave.”
Birta states that the only expropriations will be in Nufărul and will affect gardens on Morii street to connect the tram line from end-Nufărul and the railway line that goes from Velenta to Băile Felix. “But even there we will only expropriate land, not buildings,” says the mayor.
Only advantages
Moreover, the specialists claim that the tram-train project will improve the lives of the residents of the entire Metropolitan Area. “The expansion of public transport between the city and the neighboring towns will generate development, people will commute more easily, and pollution will be reduced because many will give up cars”, claims one of the authors of the feasibility study, engineer Marius Ionașcu.
In fact, at the beginning of this month, the Bihor Environmental Protection Agency approved the project presentation memorandum, after it was debated in a meeting with representatives of other institutions and put into public debate, without attracting comments. “For the most part, the existing train and tram lines are used, which will be modernized, so there were no discussions”, explains the director of APM Bihor, Sanda Mercea (photo).
With the tram-train comes money
And real estate specialists say that the project will positively influence the area. “The proximity of transport lines increases the price of properties, not lowers them, as some fear,” says Mihai Pop, Remax partner.
According to him, the tram-train will increase the value of properties on the route, whether they are land or houses. “On Lacul Roșu street we are talking about percentages between 5% and 10% more, which is not a little if we take into account that the price of houses in the area is around 1,550 euros per square meter,” says the real estate specialist.
The increase percentage is also valid for block apartments. And as the tram-train will have a station at the intersection of Lacul Roșu and Moldovei streets, in the area of the Blue Church, the mobility argument will definitely be used by all the residents, who will practically have scaled trams…
COMMUTE EASIER
30,000
of commuters from the Oradea Metropolitan Area will be able to use, according to the studies, the future railway connections with the municipality, giving up cars
“People have nothing to fear. The tram-train will be electric, and the lines it will run on will be new or modernized, so, unlike cars, it will not produce any noise or noise”
Eng. Marius Ionașcu
IRON ROAD
The Oradea tram
The unified feasibility study of the project for the development of tram-train networks in the Oradea Metropolitan Area includes several documents made last year, in parallel, by the officials of the County Council and those of the City Hall.
The municipality’s employees coordinated the studies for the extension of the tram line from Calea Aradului to the Airport (2.23 km) and the rehabilitation of the railway link between Oradea East and Oradea West (8.9 km). The City Hall also developed the documentation for the development of a line between Oradea Vest and the localities of Sântandrei, Palota, Girișu de Criș and Toboliu to Cheresig (17.2 km), as well as for the extension of the tram line from the western industrial area to Borș ( 5.6 km).
CJ Bihor ordered the studies for the extension of the tram line from the Oradea exit to Băile Felix through the back of Selgros to the train line leading to the President complex in Băile Felix (8.4 km) and for the connection between the tram line in Corneliu street Coposu and the train line from the CFR station area via Ștefan cel Mare street (1.3 km).
The creators of the latter excluded the option of a route through Transilvaniei street because it would have affected a much larger number of parking lots, and the connection to the railway would have been more difficult due to the blocks on Ștefan cel Mare boulevard. In the same way, the option of connecting the tram line to the railway line in Olimpiadei Street through the station was excluded because it would have made the project of future underground passages in Bucharest Square impossible.
Articles on the same topic:
