What quality and capacity can bus systems achieve in Europe? 1

Big changes for the bus
François Rambaud, Project Manager - Network design and management,
Certu, Lyon, France &
Carlos Cristóbal-Pinto, Head of Studies and Planning Department
(Jefe del Área de Estudios y Planificación), CRTM, Madrid, Spain
What quality and capacity can bus systems
achieve in Europe? 1
Left: Lorient: a 2.5 km common section that prioritises all lines operating in the centre
Right: Castellon: the guided bus in a well identified infrastructure
The first known Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) system was launched in Curitiba, Brazil in 1974 as a means of offering efficient and
effective bus travel within the fast expanding city...
After other efficient examples
such as those found in Ottawa,
Canada (since 1983) or in Quito,
Ecuador (since 1994), which integrated
much more ITS, the US have written and
launched the Bus Rapid Transit concept
in 2004 (with a new version in 2009)
as a method for understanding and improving
such trends all over the world,
both in developing countries, as well as
for themselves and in developed countries.
The well-known BRT with the highest
capacity at this time can be seen
in Bogotá, Colombia. It is called Transmilenio
and was developed in 2000.
It now boasts a network of 85km, with
some impressive bus flows.
BRT is seen as a means of offering high
levels of service, similar to that of light
rail but at a fraction of the cost, through
a system based approach to bus travel.
For what market, for what kind of city, is
this concept most suitable and affordable?
And does or can this concept really
compete with the rail market? These are
several hot issues which cannot have
the same answers everywhere in the
world…
Throughout Europe, bus improvements
have followed similar principles:
in Sweden (as a ‘trunk network’ in
Stockholm), in England and in Ireland
(under the name of ‘Quality Bus Corridor’),
in France (BHNS – ‘Bus à Haut
Niveau de Service’), in Germany and in
Spain (the Metrobus concept), and in
the Netherlands (HOV – ‘Hoogwaardig
Openbaar Vervoer’; high quality public
transport).
In order to understand how it is applied
and could best be applied to the European
urban and economical context, a
COST 2 Action, called ‘Buses with a high
level of service, Fundamental characteristics
and recommendations for decision-making
and research’ has been
approved in April 2007 and will last until
October 2011.
Within a group of 14 countries 3 involved,
our objective is mainly to share
our current state of the art know-how
in this field, the key findings as well
as the limits and difficulties to launch
such BHLS projects in Europe. We
need to understand better the key
components of efficient and attractive
‘system’ approaches.
This COST action is split into four Work
Packages (WP) and four Working Groups
(WG) represented in the chart on p.23.
The three first WGs cover all the system
components, while the fourth deals with
assessment issues and the different impacts
of the whole system.
Four plenary meetings with technical visits
have already been organised: in Dublin,
in Nantes (with a visit to the Triskell
in Lorient and also to the Trans-Val-de-
Marne, which extends to Paris), in Madrid
(with a visit to the guided trolleybus in
Castellón), and last but not least in Sweden
(Stockholm, Jönköping and Lund).
22 PTI September/October 2009

Big changes for the bus
During these workshops a great diversity
of systems was observed, as follows:
Dublin (1.2 million inhabitants) has
launched, since several years, an impressive
network of several Quality Bus
Corridors (QBC) on the main arteries
of the whole urban area. The aim is to
provide 400km of QBC compared to the
first 200km already carried out (annual
investment of EUR 30 million - EUR 40
million until 2011). The buses do not
have a specific design. The great results
they got, however, (better regularity
and speed) allowed them to increase
their frequency and attractiveness (on
all QBC, around 16% of the trips come
from cars). After working on infrastructure
itself at a large scale, the objective
is now to soon implement a dynamic
information system for passengers (real
time data).
Nantes (0.6 million inhabitants) has
chosen the Busway as its fourth main
line, a bus implemented exactly like the
three existing tramway lines, with right
of way, priority at all crossings, ticketing
machines at all stations, and obviously
an enhancement of the whole urban
space between housing. The whole
cost reaches EUR 7 million/km, a third
of a tram line. Opened since November
2006 with a very high frequency (3.5
min), this line is well identified and
has gone beyond the prevision, 26,500
passengers/day for an only 7km long
line. Bi-articulated buses will soon be
requested.
Lorient (0.2 million inhabitants) is the
main city of an urban area too small for
launching a hierarchised network with
feeder bus lines on a heavy tram line.
A project of three enhanced bus corridors
(called the Triskell) has been carried
out without changing the existing
bus network. While improving walking
and bike modes, this project was led by
these three main objectives: the bus being
direct, clearly identified, and always
having first right of way as often as possible
(through crossroads and reserved
platform in the city centre, and virtual
bus lines in other areas).
Paris (Region: 11.6 million inhabitants)
offers the highest capacity bus line
in France, called TVM (Trans-Val-de-
Marne), which was launched in 1993.
With its very recent western extension
(July 2007), implemented with lots of
improvements in infrastructure (better
station concept), more clearly identified
and new operating tools (camera control
and priority at traffic lights) for the
The four working packages of the COST project
WG1
Infrastructure
WG2
Rolling-stock
benefit of the whole line (decrease of
fuel consumption by 6%), this suburban
line now boasts an impressive length
(20km), frequency (3-4min) and load
(around 65,000 passengers/day) whilst
connecting several RER interchanges
around the south of Paris.
Madrid (Region: 6.4 million inhabitants)
launched an impressive and alternative
BUS – VAO 4 lane in 1995, alongside the
A-6 corridor, a novelty in Europe, providing
both promotion of public transport,
as well as a means to increase car occupancy
through infrastructure management.
On this corridor, the car modal
share has decreased from 55,6% down
to 47,9%. The system is complemented
with an underground bus terminal station,
Moncloa, which is very well integrated
with the metro network. Almost
120,000 passengers/day use this corridor.
Due to this success, a similar large
investment program has been planned
all around the metropolitan area (Mbus
concept). The four expected lines are estimated
to cost around EUR 10-15 million
per kilometer.
Castellón (0.3 million inhabitants) decided
to structure its public transport
network with two long guided trolleybus
lines (22 and 18km) well marked within a
red contrasted infrastructure. The guiding
system chosen is optical like TEOR’s
in Rouen. The first two kilometres were
WG3
Operating
issues
WP1 State of the art
WG4
Social,
economical
issues and
networking
Identification of the best practices, case studies regarding the system
WP2 Analysis of the state of the art
WG reports for each WG topic
WP3 Recommandations
WG reports for each WG topic - final report
WP4 Dissemination
Website - final conference
opened in June 2008, connecting the
university with the railway station. Efficient
and regular gaps were observed.
Stockholm (1.9 million inhabitants)
launched in 1992 a bus-based trunk
network of four lines, restructuring the
whole central area. The average bus
speed was previously 13km/h. The bus
lines have been strengthened and have
been called by easy numbers to remember:
Lines one to four. Previously,
between 24,000 and 35,000 passengers/day
were carried, whereas now
there are between 23,000 and 57,000
at an average speed of 15km/h. More
than half of the new passengers come
from the metro, and 5% from the car. A
good identification of the system (blue
buses) with a better offer (frequency
and schedule span) can provide higher
ridership, even if the infrastructure is
not totally dedicated and the crossings
were neither all prioritised, nor exclusively
dedicated, nor were the crossings
all right-of-way ones.
Jönköping (County: 0.3 million inhabitants),
located in the middle of Sweden’s
three largest cities (Stockholm,
Göteborg and Malmö), is built around
three lakes. Hence it was complicated
to deal with both transportation and
urbanism. To solve mobility problems,
a new master plan integrated a hierarchised
bus network, with two main
September/October 2009
PTI
23

Big changes for the bus
Left: Jönköping: the central station, where the 3 structured lines converge
Right: Utrecht: bi-articulated buses, in a well contrasted, dedicated lane since 2003
BHLS lines (a yellow one and a red
one) that cross the centre since 1996.
A third (green) line was started in 2001
in order to complete the network. An
efficient global approach has been
achieved, with right of way and ITS
since 1997 (waiting time for next departure
is given at stops and priority
granted at all crossings).
Lund (0.1 million inhabitants), which
has 35,000 students, has set up a
strategy for a sustainable transport
system by 2030. The bus line called
‘Lundalänken’ (Lund link) has been
strengthened with infrastructure
measures encouraging BHLS lines offering
a high level of service. Started
in 2003, this line doubled its ridership
in three years, and today carries 6,000
passengers/day. The line cost EUR 20
million for 6km, with dedicated lanes
only if needed. This infrastructure design
has integrated ‘tram’ specifications,
so that a tramway can easily be
built on this platform in case of higher
ridership in the future: the bridges are
high enough, the holds wide enough
and so on.
Gothenburg (1.5 million inhabitants)
had a too low level of public transport
modal share (24% of the motorised
trips). The city already had 11 tram
lines, to which four bus trunk lines
were added. The idea of launching
a BHLS network with bi-articulated
buses was born because of a lack of
money. They now carry: 24,000 passengers/day
with 3min headway at
peak hours on Line 16; 10,000 passengers/day
with 5min headway for
Line 17; and 20,000 passengers/day
for Lines 18+19 with headways of
5 min.
Some key points can be highlighted:
• Successful BHLS projects require
lengthy dialogue; the issue of choosing
the right mode remains fundamental.
As a mode, the bus appears
flexible and well-adapted to new or
expanded urban zones (e.g. Evry in
France, Almere in the Netherlands
and the Fastrack project southeast of
London).
• Buses allow a variety of configurations:
from high-volume primary
routes fed by secondary services
through to trunk sections shared by
several routes in order to minimise
transfers. However, there are no
traces of the express services that
are so widely developed in highcapacity
projects on the other side
of the Atlantic.
• Some BHLS projects are designed to
be upgraded in future into tramway
systems once there is sufficient demand.
Europe’s economic context
and labour costs appear to favour
tramway for upwards of 30,000 to
50,000 trips/day and for volumes of
over 2,000 to 2,800 passengers per
hour on the grounds of comfort and
urban integration.
• The projects are beginning to show
signs of high-quality integration; the
exclusive busways are easily passable
in order to promote cycling and
walking. It then becomes difficult to
go beyond three-minute headways in
order to maintain satisfactory service
consistency.
• A bus market specifically for BHLS
appears to be emerging: this needs
to be recognisable and provide the
level of comfort and information of
a structuring corridor. The bi-articulated
vehicle also appears to have its
place in Europe.
In conclusion, BHLS has a highly promising
market in Europe in small towns,
medium-sized conurbations as well as
in the outlying zones of the biggest metropolitan
areas.
Until its expected publication in 2011,
do stay in contact through the website
www.bhls.eu 5 , where you will find,
amongst other information, all the presentations
of the plenary workshops that
have been and will be organised.
1 Article made from the COST action TU 0603
framework, ‘Buses with a high level of service’
- www.bhls.eu
2 COST is an intergovernmental European
framework for international cooperation between
nationally funded research activities.
COST activities are endorsed by the FP7. For
further information, see www.cost.esf.org
3 Participating countries: Belgium, Czech Republic,
France, Germany, Greece, Ireland,
Italy, Netherlands, Portugal, Romania, Spain,
Sweden, Switzerland and United Kingdom.
4 A VAO or HOV lane: High Occupancy Vehicle
highway lane i.e. for cars with more than one
person.
5 The first leaflet can be downloaded at http://
www.bhls.eu/IMG/pdf/bhls_nl1_gb_web.pdf
Contact:
Francois.Rambaud@developpementdurable.gouv.fr
and
carlos.cristobal@ctm-comadrid.com
copying editor@uitp.org
Partly translated from the French original version
24 PTI September/October 2009