Abstract

Recently, metropolitan public transit sector in Turkey has witnessed a surge in urban rail projects. Accordingly, suburban railways, metro or light railways have become the main focus of investment in public transit. Enactment of Law No. 6360, which expands powers and responsibilities of metropolitan municipality to its provincial boundaries, has increased the prospects of rail transit to suburban rail systems. In fact, suburban rail lines, especially in Istanbul, Ankara and Izmir, had long been providing regional services in Turkey. However, slow speeds, infrequent arrival, and a generally low service level with outdated technology make these trains less appealing than private car in early 2000s. Lately, suburban lines, such as Marmaray in Istanbul, Baskentray and IZBAN, in Ankara and Izmir, respectively, have been upgraded and put to service.

IZBAN, extending to the provincial boundaries, is the longest of all suburban lines in Turkey. Currently, providing access between Aliağa, an important industial district in the north, and Selçuk, southernmost district of Izmir, IZBAN is planned to extend to Bergama, the northernmost district of Izmir. Started by a joint venture between metropolitan municipality and state railways, IZBAN is the only project of its size initiated by local collaboration and innovative entrepreneurship. The line connects a significant number of destinations in daily trips, which makes IZBAN an important commuting trip mode.

The current study has the aim to find out the effects of a suburban railway investment on population mobility. Based on this quest, we firstly hypotesize that reliable and fast rail public service, which connects main destinations in a region like IZBAN, has a significant role in residential location decisions. Accordingly, population changes in the neighborhoods where IZBAN provides direct access are examined in relation to other neighborhoods by Analysis of Covariance (ANCOVA) statistical models. Significant relative increase in the populations of neighbourhoods, served by IZBAN stations, is found. Moreover, these population increases are higher in the northern and southern segments, pointing to IZBAN induced decentralization in the metropolitan area and exemplifying a self-organized transit-oriented development in Turkey.