BRT Handbook Ads_P01, 02,04,06,14,16,32,34-36 12/09/2012 13:20 Page 1 Bus Rapid Transit Powers Ahead A review of the key developments 2012/13 Reviewing key bus rapid transit developments I Hampshire’s Eclipse brightens things up I Time for the BRT trolleybus? I What Toronto teaches us I The buses from Brazil The Handbook Published by: Supported by: Sponsored by: BRT Handbook Ads_P01, 02,04,06,14,16,32,34-36 12/09/2012 13:20 Page 2 BRT-Contents_P03 12/09/2012 13:30 Page 3 Introduction. 3 Last year it was Cambridgeshire, this year it is Hampshire’s ‘Eclipse’ scheme that is winning all the plaudits; it looks like BRT is here to stay, says Rik Thomas ne universal problem faced by any that it can be a highly efficient and cost running. And both are producing passenger innovative new transport idea effective means of mass transit people have numbers that are very healthy indeed. O(although BRT, of course, is to be persuaded to build schemes, but it is So we now know that BRT works. anything but new) is that nobody wants to hard to do this unless there are already Well, actually, we knew this before, but now be first; no matter how good the idea looks successful schemes to use as exemplars. we have the hard evidence to convince even on paper people are, entirely Which, in turn, means that every the most sceptical. 14 new BRT schemes are understandably, very cautious about successful BRT scheme has an effect that in the pipeline in the UK, apparently – and spending significant amounts of money on a extends far beyond its immediate the term ‘critical mass’ springs to mind. project that could turn out to be a financial catchment area. Last year it was Indeed, as BRTuk chair Bob Tebb notes in his disaster and a political embarrassment. Cambridgeshire’s guided busway that was introduction, BRT is now mainstream. Which leads to an obvious paradox – in winning all the headlines. This year And not before time. order for BRT to be able to prove to people Hampshire’s Eclipse scheme has got up and Rik Thomas, Handbook Editor P23 Contents..................... What Toronto teaches us The BRT sector can learn a lot from innova- tive schemes, explains Parsons Brinckerhoff P5 P15 2012: BRT momentum grows Keeping it simple BRTuk chair Dr Bob Tebb celebrates BRT State-of-the-art equipment can add real entering the transit mainstream value to the customer experience, says Vix P7 P17 BRT has finally come of age Eclipse brightens things up Parson Brinckerhoff’s David Eve suggests Hampshire’s BRT scheme opened this year that a breakthrough has been made but expansion is already planned P25 Catching the BRT virus BRT has ‘gone viral’ in several countries and the UK could be next, says ITP P9 P27 A business-like attitude Brazil boosts its BRT A robust business case for BRT is key to P21 success, says Atkins And microsimulation modelling from Smartcards on the rise Aimsun is helping them to do it P11 Smartcard ticketing enhances the BRT ex- P29 The added value of BRT perience, says ITSO Analysis by one of TfL’s planners suggests BRT or LRT? that BRT may boost property prices Transport Scotland discusses the relative merits of the two modes P13 Jumping on the trolley P31 Plans for a trolleybus network in Leeds Tales of the city could be the start of a renaissance for this Urbanisation is going to drive global ex- mode, says Mott MacDonald pansion in BRT, says Frost & Sullivan HANDBOOK EDITOR BRTuk MEMBERSHIP BRTuk SECRETARY ADVERTISING PRINT & DISTRIBUTION ISBN 978-1-899650-67-5 Rik Thomas OFFICE David Eve, Daniel Simpson Hastings Printing E: [email protected] c/o Keith Gellaitry, Parsons Brinckerhoff E: [email protected] Company Ltd, Drury Lane, Brought to you by T: 0845 270 7878 Dundas & Wilson, c/o A Hopcroft, 6 T: 0845 270 7861 St Leonards-on-Sea, Saltire Court, Devonshire Square, East Sussex TN38 9BJ EDITORIAL OFFICES 20 Castle Terrace, London EC2M 4YE DESIGN & PRODUCTION Landor Links, Apollo Edinburgh EH1 2EN Justin Andrew. House, 359 Kennington E: [email protected] © Landor LINKS Ltd & Lane, London SE11 5QY BRTuk Ltd 2012 BRT Handbook Ads_P01, 02,04,06,14,16,32,34-36 12/09/2012 13:20 Page 4 Don’t miss: Bringing forward BRT: 21st Century City Transport Delivering schemes more efficiently, building patronage more effectively: Lessons from experience Meon Valley Hotel, Southampton 1-2 October 2012 BRT’s cost effectiveness is making it the mass transit system Organised by: of choice in regions across the globe. There is fresh interest in G 2 day conference BRT in the UK with the success of recently opened schemes, and a growing list of towns and cities are bringing forward G National & international schemes of their own. experience This event brings together the practical experience of how to G Study Tour, South East deliver the right sort of BRT schemes for any location more cost Sponsored by: effectively, and case studies from the UK and abroad. Hampshire Eclipse BRT `G Networking dinner Speakers include: Supported by: G Alan Bailes, Technical Director, Amey Consulting G Martyn Briggs, Frost & Sullivan G Ross Clark, Rail Performance Manager, Transport Scotland G Giles Fearnley, Managing Director, First UK Bus G Michael Hart, Vix UK Secure your place today at: G Rolf Hedberg, Senior Product Manager, Scania Buses G Mathew Kitchen, General Manager, First Hampshire www.TransportXtra.com/events G Bob Menzies, Head of Delivery, Cambridgeshire CC G Allan Rogers, Project Director, Luton Dunstable Guided Busway, BAM Nuttall G Dr. Bob Tebb, Chair BRT UK G Keith Willcox, Hampshire CC Plus… *NEW FOR 2012* BRT Progress Forum — A status update from major UK scheme promotors. Find out more at www.TransportXtra.com/events Don’t miss out, secure your place today by visiting www.TransportXtra.com/events call 020 7091 7865 or email [email protected] to request a faxable booking form. Feature01-BobTebb_P05 25/03/2013 17:10 Page 5 5 as the scheme would then have been saddled with high-floor vehicles with a potentially long 2012: BRT lifespan, as the low-floor bus advance was then still awaited. We must all be aware that any transit scheme has to operate within whatever momentum grows legislative and economic constraints exist at the time. All infrastructure-based transit faces these to a greater extent than ‘ordinary’ bus rapidly in the UK! service provision does, as a longer ‘whole life’ is required to fund the infrastructure. Thus far, BRT in Britain has demonstrated 2011 certainly lived up to the most optimistic hopes its ability, through its inherent flexibility, to adapt well to these changing legislative and of BRT supporters, says BRTuk chair Dr Bob Tebb economic circumstances from deregulation to (perhaps) the imposition of enforced he opening of the Cambridgeshire contracts with operators; proposed changes Busway in August 2011 put BRT on the to the administration processes in the near Tmap in the UK and no mistake. What a future should be as easily accommodated. wonderful problem to have to find oneself so One should not defer a BRT scheme in case desperately short of vehicles to cope with these changes might occur! However, I still demand from ‘Day 1’ – and with little sign of believe co-operation between the public and this problem diminishing despite the rapid private sectors is the way to make real infusion of extra vehicles (which is relatively progress! easy to achieve with BRT of course). BRT still suffers one disadvantage in I find it strange, if comforting, that arch- comparison with other fixed-track modes. As advocates of other rapid transit modes have I mentioned last year, its very flexibility makes BRT is now part of the mainstream transit industry, been remarkably quiet subsequently about says Bob Tebb it well-nigh impossible to define the scale and the BRT patronage growth rates on this new developed for Cambridgeshire, as we were statistics of any BRT system – its ‘track’ system, which have often significantly able to see during a BRTuk visit this summer. mileage, its route mileage, and its operating outstripped the much-heralded ‘successes’ of We hope to visit this scheme during our 2013 fleet, as well as its patronage, are all ‘as long other fixed-track modes. BRTuk Conference. as a piece of string’. One of our member One swallow does not make a summer, of Guided busways will also feature strongly organisations is currently engaged in a project course, and I have been frankly delighted and in the Greater Manchester Leigh busway to try to put some logical comparative BRT astounded at the veritable stream of other scheme, which, after a hesitant gestation data together, and we must do all we can to BRT scheme proposals pursuing period, now looks set fair to progress rapidly. help in this worthy cause, difficult as it is to Cambridgeshire to their own successes. A technological development that is rising achieve. Like it or not, without good The BRTuk conference this year is in the significantly up the agenda is that of fuel, and comparative statistics BRT as an option may southern counties to celebrate the equal the associated drive trains. Biofuel, LNG, LPG well be overlooked in comparison with other success of the South-East Hampshire ‘Eclipse’ and ethanol are all in the frame, as are the modes. busway project, which opened this year. This more electric options such as fuel cell, hybrid This year has once again demonstrated the may not be as high-profile as Cambridgeshire and pure-electric power sources – the last a supreme flexibility and value-for-money of but it is certainly just as ‘snazzy’, as yet rising star from recent development work, BRT – as well as its sheer popularity with another BRT conversion of a moribund ex- particularly in China; fortunately BRT is robust users – and I look forward in the coming railway brings BRT to the Gosport– corridor.