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Guided Bus-ways

Snow is a problem with guided bus-ways in Canada (except for maybe Vancouver). The bus-ways would have to be either heated (expensive) to melt any accumulation of snow, or the bus-way has to be covered with a roof (Montreal's Metro has to be covered for the same reason).
 
W. K. Lis said:
Snow is a problem with guided bus-ways in Canada (except for maybe Vancouver). The bus-ways would have to be either heated (expensive) to melt any accumulation of snow, or the bus-way has to be covered with a roof (Montreal's Metro has to be covered for the same reason).
Click to expand...

Equip a special snowplow with the same horizontal wheels as the buses? I know it would require some unique design, but it's not so out of the box that it couldn't be done. It also doesn't have to be plowed to the same standards as a road (ie salted as much, etc). It's not like the bus is going to fishtail anywhere. If anything you just pay a bit more attention to slopes where the buses would have trouble getting up them in icy conditions (ie get a guy out there to pour a bag of salt or sand over that spot, hardly a show-stopper).

Having said that, I can see this being quite applicable for BRT covered trenches and tunnels. Allows you to design a narrower trench/tunnel width.
 
EMP1729 said:
Wouldn't a BRT or dedicated bus lanes be sufficient and cheaper?
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In the situation they have in the video, yes. I'm not sure why they had the guided busway in that location, maybe as a prototype? (The manufacturer covered the increased cost?).

This does have some promise though for locations where space is a constraint, like in a trench or a tunnel like I mentioned before.

I wonder what the difference in ride would be like compared to a bus on a standard dedicated roadway. I would imagine there would be less side to side movement for sure, but I would think the condition of the concrete would largely dictate how bouncy it was. This may also be good for when a bus is going around a curve, to help manage it better. I would think an ideal system would be a mix of both standard asphalt in some sections, and guideways in others.
 
The guided busway is a prototype that is 65 million pounds over budget as well 2 year late for operation. The manufacturer was picking up most of the cost over run.

If a bus breaks down at a station, there is no passing area for another bus to use.

Emergency vehicles can use this busway with no problems.

Most transit planners I know around the world have said this should have been an LRT line and it would had used less room than the busway.

This busway is only good for less than 2% grade and areas where you get either no snow or a small amount.

An BRT is cheaper than this busway, as there were many issues with the concrete guide way. It would take a longer time to fix it as this is not an off the shelf item, unless you have a stock pile sitting around to cover these issues.

Until you find a way to take the driver out of the buses, will cost more to operate per rider mile than an LRT.

Using it in a tunnel is fine, but at what cost to the over all cost of the system? Those tunnels need to be long to justify a system like this.

Very interesting
guided-trolleybus-tram-1a.jpg
 
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What exactly is the difference between this and the Adelaide O-Bahn?
I also tend to think the opposite........I think it would be ideal for snowy cities. The are essentially set in concrete tracks and so they would not have the problems of sliding like a bus would on a regular busway. Anyone who has ever taken Ottawa's Transitway in the winter knows exactly what I'm talking about. No amount of snow will ever hold a bus back but rather it's the sliding all over the road due to the slick and icey patches. The problem buses have with bad winter weather is not going thru a snowy street but rather staying on it. The tracks negate these problems. These unique busways have the advantage of not having to share a road with cars which in winter can also effect bus traffic, speed, and safety. I would also think that the smooth concrete tracks would make for a more comfortable ride than standard buses or even BRT.
I also think it is a superior system for route of lower ridership as LRT requires the very expensive rail tracks and especially the overhead power lines.
 
So why can't we put rail wheels on cars and buses and use something like the guided busway as a transitional segment? They use rail and road wheels on service vehicles on the railways all the time. That way, you get the flexibility of regular vehicles at the ends of the journey, you don't need electrified rail to start with, and you can platoon and have the guiding advantages of existing trains on the rails. Such as scheme was proposed as far back as the seventies in the book YV88, for example.
 
Komiksulo said:
So why can't we put rail wheels on cars and buses and use something like the guided busway as a transitional segment? They use rail and road wheels on service vehicles on the railways all the time. That way, you get the flexibility of regular vehicles at the ends of the journey, you don't need electrified rail to start with, and you can platoon and have the guiding advantages of existing trains on the rails. Such as scheme was proposed as far back as the seventies in the book YV88, for example.
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We could. However everyone would need to buy a set of rail wheels for the car and we'd need to build railroads for them to use, because there isn't much spare capacity in the existing system. In addition, the rail service vehicles you see manually raise and lower the second set, so you'd need to stop and get out of your vehicle everytime you crossed a segment limit.

Intermodal transport is great, but you have to consider the time and cost implications.
 
drum118 said:
Very interesting
guided-trolleybus-tram-1a.jpg
Click to expand...

what is the difference between this and the existing St.Clair ROW which has consistent bus usage on it for buses entering St Clair west station? Seems to work the same, except for the trolley portion and the guided portion.
 
BMO said:
what is the difference between this and the existing St.Clair ROW which has consistent bus usage on it for buses entering St Clair west station? Seems to work the same, except for the trolley portion and the guided portion.
Click to expand...

That looks to the system in Essen. There is a significant difference between this system and the St. Clair transit loop. The St. Clair loop was designed for both buses and streetcars, whereas the Essen system was retrofitted to allow buses to share the tram ROW on the surface AND tunnel. This means the buses had to interact with the signals underground amongst other precautions.

This page is a great description of the system(and where drum found the pic)

http://citytransport.info/OBahn.htm
 
That new Chinese bus contraption has far more to do wit keeping cars moving that it does about transit. There is nothing that thing has over just painting one of the lines green for HOV/buses except it looks flashy.

Buses on tracks have proven themselves to be reliable, safe, efficient, and fast. They are the benefit over rail in that they get rid of the dreaded last mile where as commuter/suburban rail usually always involves a transfer on to local service. They are also excellent in snow or inclement weather and the concrete rail guards allow for far less erosions than asphalt and offer a smoother ride and saves fuel to boot. Even the bridges are cheaper only requiring two tracks but with higher barriers. Articulated and double articulated buses backed up by high frequency also gives them high capacity.
 
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