The decision to develop a single-line metro system in Thessaloniki was reached in 2003; construction began in 2006 with operation expected from 2012. The 9.5km, 13-station system will be serving a dense urban area of justover one million people, Greece's second largest city. Its impact, beyondcity mobility in its strict definition, is bound to be crucial affecting the city's general social and economic development. Not least, regarding urban regeneration along the line's corridor and around its stations where a set of projects are being discussed, promoted and initiated. This paper attempts to assess such future urban regeneration effects, distinguishing between direct impacts and indirect, more policy or public and private investment-dependent, collateral effects across space (different parts of theline) and time (planning, construction and operation phases of the project). Actual and potential land use and land value changes are examined, magnitudes and types of public and private real estate investment evaluated, in combination with a variety of qualitative data, so as to arrive to as accurate a picture as possible of the urban regeneration future afforded tothe corridor of the line and the city more generally. The methodology adopted draws considerably on the European Research Framework V 'TranSEcon' project, which pursued an ex post evaluation of the social and economic impacts of new urban transport networks in 13 European cities. The challenge of our own research being that of adapting the methodology to an ex ante situation and examining in depth a single case-study city rather than engaging in comparative analysis. For the covering abstract see ITRD E145999
Abstract