- Railway Lines - the Potential Spine for the Future Post-Soviet Cities Growth    415 kb by    Stepura, Mikhail | mstepura@tut.by    Short Outline The railway lines are projected to become the spine of the future city growth in post-Soviet cities. The development potential of areas along the future fast city railway transportation lines is calculated based on the study of Minsk, Belarus. Abstract The section of the usual post-Soviet city could be represented by a donut. The central and middle parts have moderate density while the huge dwelling districts on the outskirts are home to most city inhabitants. Such city form results in a very obvious problem, city dwellers spend a lot of time and energy in everyday commuting. As the city is predominantly structured along the streets, which become more and more congested, public transportation fails to work as effective as it used to. There is a need for alternative public transportation mode. The average big post-Soviet city has a well established railway infrastructure running through the city. Railways could be used to provide fast public transport service, link large dwelling districts with city centre. The question of railways redevelopment and reuse for public transport needs is closely linked to the question of redevelopment of the areas along the railway lines. Currently railway lines are predominantly surrounded by the old low-density residential, industrial or servicing territories or not used at all. To ensure the effective functioning of the public city railway system the areas along the railway lines need to go through a great transformation. The areas along the railway lines have a great potential, they run through the whole city, from the centre to suburbs and with the right development and simultaneous opening of the fast public transportation could become a spine of the future city growth. This paper presents the results of the research calculating the potential of the areas along the railway lines, based on the study of Minsk, Belarus. The findings and recommendations could be applied to other post-Soviet cities, which have similar structure. Keywords railway transportation development Case Study presented on the ISOCARP Congress 2012: Fast Forward: Planning in a (hyper) dynamic urban context   Click to open the full paper as pdf document   Click to send an email to the author(s) of this paper