September 01, 2017
The new chairman of the Tehran City Council, Mohsen Hashemi, says the only way to reduce traffic problems is to vastly expand the subway system, which Hashemi once ran.
“Tehran needs 12 subway lines running at full capacity and able to carry 10 million people a day,” he said.
Currently, there are eight subway lines in use or under construction. Line 6, which runs northwest to southeast, has not yet become operational and lines 3, 7 and 8 are not yet complete.
Hashemi also called for many more trains to be run on the lines. “Ideally, interval times between trains must be reduced to three minutes,” he said.
According to Maziyar Hossaini, deputy for traffic and transport affairs at the Tehran Municipality, the existing lines carry nearly three million passengers a day or less than a third of what Hashemi says they should eventually carry.
Hashemi, the son of former president Ali-Akbar Hashemi-Rafsanjani, said that the bus fleet must also be developed and connected to the subway stations.
“If and when the bus network carries five million passengers a day, 15 million people will travel by public transport and that will reduce the snarling traffic to a considerable degree,” he said. Greater Tehran is home to 13 million people.
To do that, between 7,000 and 9,000 buses as well as 3,000 train cars are required, he added.
Hashemi said the new City Council will focus on developing an efficient public transport system across the sprawling capital.
Another major issue that the new council will seek to address is clarifying the municipality’s regulations to prevent multiple interpretations of ordinances.
“The vagueness of the ordinances must be resolved to make them as transparent as possible,” Hashemi told state TV.