The tram-like bus should make travelling around the city much faster, cheaper, cleaner and reliable
Tbf, there is a place in public transit infrastructure for busses. Trains are great, but there are routes out there that would be impractical to serve with a full size train or inefficiently expensive to build out tram rails for, but which a bus can serve effectively.
We have the South Lake Union Railcar in Seattle. Nobody rides it. And like I’m not one to blame infrastructure, but you can literally walk faster than it moves. Meanwhile there are shitloads of buses with plenty of ridership. Many fully electric with overhead wire.
Meanwhile bicyclists routinely get their wheels caught in the tracks and eat it.
I can’t imagine the efficiency of rail makes much difference in a city environment. The best argument I’ve heard for rail is that it’s more a commitment to developers that the route won’t be changed any time soon.
Light rail is almost always more energy efficient, more cost effective, safer, offers a smoother ride, requires less maintenance, and it can be fully automated.
Lots of major cities outside of the US have had great success using light rail. I have no idea how Seattle managed to fuck it up
the main argument I see for rail is that it doesnt get stuck in car traffic, which should make it easier to keep to a reliable schedule and speed, and that it can have a higher capacity per vehicle. Those would seem to indicate that it should be better than busses for routes that are very busy, provided of course that the rail infrastructure is actually good (able to do a reasonable speed, have reasonable reliability, and separated from other modes of transit to as to not cause conflicts at crossings). If your trains are so slow you can beat them by walking, and directly cross the roads and bike paths, then its not trains as a concept that are the problem, its that you have rather bad trains.
Does your tram get stuck in traffic or something? Why is it that slow?
I don’t know much about trams but I kinda feel like that’s not supposed to happen.
For long term investment the tram wins out in energy efficiency. If you want the next politician in power to easily be able to remove transit, the bus wins.
By building a tram line you cement into the city that it is now a transit corridor. The city can then develop more densely if needed to increase ridership or make the area more catered to pedestrians.
BRT is also effective. It’s rail without the rails. In areas that are car dependent, it’s going to be substantially cheaper for cities to build out BRT while expanding the rail lines. In my (us) city, they’re building out a pretty substantial BRT while also expanding one of the light rail lines. The BRT network currently in construction is half the price of the current light rail expansion under construction.
According to the BBC, the changes have huge positive upsides: “The Glider buses can carry around 30% more passengers than a double decker bus, and has space for wheelchairs and luggage. The vehicles also use a tap and go payment system to speed up boarding and have three sets of double doors which Mr Rotheram said helps people get on and off the service “much more quickly”.”
Buses are a lot more practical for residential areas than trains, and quieter too.
Im almost certain an electric tram would be quieter than a bus. The rubber tires have more friction and make more noise. The exhaust from the bus can be loud and smelly.
A bus that looks like a tram that says “metro” on the front. Still better than a car.
These buses are 18 meter long and made by Van Hool. In Linz (Austria) we have more than 20 of them, but the larger version with 24 meters that can carry up to 180 passengers.
The 24 meter version is running in Trondheim, Norway. They currently have 58 busses, and are planning to increase with more routes. The city has plenty of narrow streets and a few steep hills, but it doesn’t seem to be a problem unless the weather is extreme in the winter.
made by Van Hool
Where are they now?
spoiler
bankrupt and all assets carved up
Okay, but when are they going to finish the HS2?
