8:02 - Mercedes Benz O405NH 542 on 'Route 542'. This is the only Mercedes Benz bus still on busway duties, manufactured in 2002 to commemorate the 20th Anniversary of the introduction to the O-Bahn Busway.
With more modern BRT concepts, passengers pay off of the bus, all doors open, passengers can get on board through all doors, making the station dwell time much shorter. Watch some videos of the BRT in Curitiba, Brazil.
Thanks Odontomatrix for your feedback. Adelaide has a population of 1.3 million people density of 400 people per square kilometer. The Curitibia's population numbered approximately 1.9 million people as of 2015 with 4,100 people per square kilometer. The much lower density in Adelaide means some of the BRT ideas may need to be modified or applied in a different way. The long dwell times for our buses was highlighted by the transport experts back in 1978 in the NEAPTR Report. The decision makers have ignored the problem because of cost. There are very few ticket inspectors in Adelaide Buses. I have only had my bus ticket check once or twice in 50 years of travelling on our buses. Adelaide relies on the bus driver being a "ticket inspector" Hence all entry of buses is via the front door. The other doors can only be used to exit from the buses. MetroCard validators have been installed on all buses, trains and trams and will accept both Metrocards and the older Crouzet tickets. On trams and trains there are two MetroCard validators at each door. Buses, however only have the one MetroCard validator. In Adelaide, people have to TAG ON with buses, trains and trams. However Adelaide Railway Station is the only place where passengers have to TAG OFF. This means they managers of the system have no way of knowing people's ultimate destinations. Nor do they know how many people are on a bus at any point along the trip. This contrasts to Perth and Sydney where TAG OFF is mandatory. The card is charged the longest trip on that route if they fail to TAG OFF. IF Adelaide's buses had one or two Validation Machines at each door the entry would be a lot faster than currently happens. Our validation machines are quite large in size because they also validate older Crouzet cardboard tickets. London Transport has small validation machines on their buses for their Oyster Cards. Adelaide's planners were considering to implement Super Bus Stops which are an emulation Curitibia's Bus Stations. But that idea has stalled. I have been lobbying for MetroCard validators at all doors on Buses and for all Bus Doors to be legal for entry into the bus. I have been informed that $1 million has been set aside to put validation machines on all doors when the O-Bahn Bus Tunnel is completed. At the same time they plan to improve the Tea Tree Plaza Bus Interchange.
Thanks very much for your detailed reply. I posted my remark mainly so other viewers wouldn't get the impression that BRT is always slow loading this way. My own small county (Santa Cruz, California, population about 250,000) purchased a rail corridor that runs the length of the county along its coast. The county’s population density is one of the highest in California, with approximately 90,000 people living within one-half mile of the rail line. Areas along the rail line have population densities similar to Berkeley/Oakland and cities along the San Francisco Bay Peninsula. The density of people in the largest city, City of Santa Cruz, and the Seacliff area are approximately 4,000/square mile; Live Oak ranges from 5,300 to 7,100 people/square mile, and the City of Watsonville has over 7,500 people/square mile. The regional transportation commission (RTC) has done various studies for using the corridor. They're in the process of building a pedestrian/bicycle trail on a portion of the width, and have studied passenger rail service on the single track freight line that no longer carries freight along the most populated section of the county. The old rails and switches are only good enough for slow freight trains, not commuter service, so they need to be replaced. The freeway is heavily congested in commute hours. Since I discovered Adelaide's O-Bahn on RUclips videos like this one and investigated other guided busways, I've been writing letters urging the RTC to do a cost/benefit comparison of guided BRT versus the LRT they have studied. I argue that the rails and old ties (sleepers) and some of the ballast (gravel) must be replaced anyway, so removing the rails is no loss. They should consider a curb-guideway and guided battery-powered buses. The accomplishments of Adelaide, Cambridge, etc., with guided busways is inspiring. I really think for our county a light-rail system would be over-kill and wouldn't provide direct service from the existing southern bus transit hub to the main bus center in downtown Santa Cruz, whereas the versatility of the bus system being able to exit the busway and travel on city streets to bus centers, shopping districts, and employment centers, would bring passengers to their destination with fewer transfers, if any. A train can't do that. The one-lane guideway with passing sections could be used by buses to bypass the slow-and-go congested freeway in the commute direction, with the buses returning to the start via the non-congested side of the freeway. In the afternoon, when the commute is the opposite directions, the buses would circulate the other direction, still bypassing the congestion. The route is 20 miles in each direction. A guided busway seems perfect for us. I hope to convince the RTC commissioners to give it careful consideration, which so far they haven't done even though a major study in 1998 recommended a 2-lane non-guided busway at that time. I think the problem is that the RTC staff and commissioners have never heard about guided busways, which I'm trying to correct. Thanks again for your reply, for posting this video, and for the additional information in the links below.
People using the O-Bahn really love it. Buses get onto and off the guided pathway at TTP, Paradise & Klemzig. In one of my video I show the full hinterland that benefits from the O-Bahn. The Bus routes in Rush Periods are NOT "all stop buses" For example the buses with "X" added to the Route Number will have shorter the travel time because they going pass a number of bus-stops without stopping. The absolute grade separation is a secret of fast and safe travel on the O-Bahn. The Original O-Bahn in Essen, Germany, had wood guideways in the tunnels and on the surface. The concrete pathway in Adelaide is the original concrete at the opening in 1989 . Steel rails would not have lasted this length of time. One problem is bus manufacturers vary the width of their buses. Guideway buses need to be a fixed width if they are to use the guideway. Buses on the O-Bahn get up to 80 Kph If Santa Cruz County is joining with say Monterey County you might like to look at our other success story involving buses. "Multimodal Bike, Bus & Train Seaford Line Adelaide Feb 2015" ruclips.net/video/gA9n_xFfFl8/видео.html AdelaideMetro trains can reach 110 Kph where the distance between the stations is sufficient for them to be able to reach that speed. The passenger trains (light rail) could go faster if the tracks were upgraded and the "level crossings" were removed.
There are four Australasian bus-based transit systems that qualify for BRT status: scholarcommons.usf.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1282&context=jpt • Adelaide North East Busway (ANEB) • Brisbane South East Busway (BSEB) • Brisbane Inner Northern Busway (BINB) • Sydney Liverpool-Parramatta Transitway (SLPT) Each system has unique and distinctive features and functions; even the two Brisbane systems have different functions. The Adelaide busway is a guided bus system using guide wheels on the side of buses to enable a smoother and faster ride along the busway. The other systems are unguided and operate as effective bus-only roads with different strategic functions: • SLPT is a cross-corridor service linking two major sub-regional centres in Western Sydney. An interesting part of this arrangement is that the transitway termini, Liverpool and Parramatta, are already linked by a direct rail service. The transitway loops to the west of the direct rail service, linking suburbs to the west with both centres. • BSEB performs a central CBD radial function from southeastern suburbs. It is a major radial corridor service stretching from the CBD to the edge of Brisbane’s sprawling suburban development. • BINB is also radial but is short in length. Its major design rationale was to provide a traffic-free, fast, high-quality link to the CBD for the large number of northern corridor bus services. These services (like the South Eastern corridor routes) used to share congested inner city roads with traffic. Road bridges accessing the CBD were particularly difficult bottlenecks and had a significant impact on bus operating speeds and reliability. The busways considerably improve on this performance "Bus Rapid Transit in Australasia: Performance, Lessons Learned and Futures" by Professor Graham Currie Institute of Transport Studies, Monash University.
The O-Bahn busway is a very important piece of infrastructure and Adelaide would be very boring without it. It has been used over 50 billion times, especially for the Festival of Arts, Fringe Festival, WOMADelaide, Clipsal 500 and the Royal Adelaide Show. I really would like to see it cleaned by some special machine.
Valley Road in Hope Valley has 556 & 557 buses that have three possibilities when travelling UP to the City. * 556 & 557 labelled buses that terminate at Paradise Interchange * 556X & 557X labelled buses that stop at Paradise Interchange, do NOT stop at Klemzig Interchange & then proceed to the CBD and terminate at stop W4 in Currie Street The return journey starts at Stop C1 is on the Western Side of Light Square. * 556 & 557 labelled buses that stop at Paradise Interchange, DO stop at Klemzig Interchange & then proceed to the CBD and terminate at stop W4 in Currie Street. The return journey starts at Stop C1 is on the Western Side of Light Square. I suggest that this last group should be Labelled 556C & 557C or something similar when they are traveled through to Currie Street. They are an all stop bus - Excellent. At present a person standing on the street seeing a 556 or 557 bus does not know where it will terminated. They are use to it terminating at Paradise, The excellent enhancement of a trip into the City on a single bus is not currently being communicated by the Signage on the exterior of the passengers. They have to ask the driver when they get onto the bus.
Here is the information the Original O-Bahn buses in Essen Germany The were upgrading their trams so they decided to move them underground in an effort to reduce congestion in their CBD, They also took the opportunity to experiment with their Trolley Buses using the same tunnels as the Trams. Here is a report of what they were did at that time. "In Essen the buses only serves tramway stops in the tunnels. Here the first step is almost in level with the edge of the platforms. As two of the stops are stations with a central platform. The buses were modified with additional doors on the left as well as on the right side to serve the central platforms." "The joint use of track by bus and tram in tunnels in Essen requires many more modifications to the buses then an exclusively guided bus operation. Driving the buses with internal combustion engines was not considered feasible, as it would be required to install a costly automatic ventilation system. The buses should therefore have two drive systems operating independently of each other. The change over from diesel engine to electric traction was made at suitable stops in the network. The driver can control the attachment and disconnection from the catenary system from his cab." "It was decided to not interfere with the existing tram catenary system. Because the buses could not fit a pantograph they built a complete separate catenary system of the normal trolleybus type. Therefore the buses was able to run at 750 V and the tram could retain the 600 V system. In the tunnels the trolleybus catenary was kept aside the trams in a low position because of lack of height. Power for the trolley system was supplied from four separate rectifier substations." "In 1995 the German government cut down the funding for the experiment. At the same time it occurred several re-wirings in the tunnels, that showed that part of the catenary needed rebuilding. It was therefore decided to quit operation in the tunnels and use the buses only in diesel mode over ground. The guided tracks are still in use. Reason for this was that operational cost for duobuses was 25 % higher than for articulated dieselbuses. Due to greater complexity they needed 50% more maintenance time. Still the duobus was cheaper to run than a tram with equal passenger carrying capacity. What influenced the decision to stop operations in trolley bus mode was the slowness and inefficiency of the suppliers of the electric components." "This is an important factor why the duobuses still operates every day on streets in Essen, but now only powered by diesel-engines. The catenary is still in place, but the trolley poles lie flat on the vehicle roof." www.tbus.org.uk/R-00-70.pdf See page 22 -26 of the above December 2000 report from Sweden. Presumably we in South Australia will follow the Queensland example and use Diesel Buses in our tunnels.
Since 2003, Turin Italy Gruppo Torinese Trasporti has used electric minibuses charged within 7 minutes www.conductix.com/en/news/2012-05-31/10-years-electric-buses-iptr-charge file:///F:/Download/study_2726_en.pdf In addition to 223 CNG buses, the company has introduced 23 electric buses which run in the city centre. The electric buses are 7.48 meters long and have 37 passenger places; 15 seated and 22 standing. They can reach a maximum velocity of 70 km/h, and their drivability is as comfortable as a traditional bus, but with less noise. Their energy consumption is 95 kWh/100km.
With the relocation of hospital beds from Modbury Hospital to Lyell McEwan their is increased need to get to that Hospital from the Modbury Interchange. It would be useful if the C1 Bus called into the Lyell McEwan Hospital. This would involve a slightly longer trip along Philip Highway & Oldham Road, instead of going along the Main North Road between Hillbank and Elizabeth CBD. Currently the 560 bus takes 54 minute for TTP interchange to Lyell McEwen Hospital. The C1 bus could do the same trip in 20 minutes if the route was changed. Stop 56 on Main North Road could be replaced with Stop 54C on Oldham Road There are real problems with cars parking the the streets around the Lyell McEwan Hospital. www.adelaidenow.com.au/news/south-australia/lyell-mcewin-hospital-parking-chaos-leaves-mum-stuck-in-her-own-driveway/story-e6frea83-1226595529996 Even better if the buses were programmed to go onto the Hospital Driveway so that people with disability can easily use public transport. If Up and Down buses used the side of the driveway adjacent to the Front Door there would be no need for disabled persons having to cross the driveway. This would involve the Down buses doing a "go-around". Adelaide Transport seems to put the Bus Stops on the wrong side of parking lots - our deference to motor car drives knows no bounds.
Grenfell Street & East Terrace is a busy location. On the South West Corner is the site of a power station that was owned by Adelaide Electric Supply Company (AESC) and functioned until 1925. The AESC was Nationalised in 1946 by the Thomas Playford Jr Liberal and Country League Government. www.ask.com/wiki/Electricity_Trust_of_South_Australia On the south side of the Power Station there was a AC to DC conversion station to produce the 600 Volt DC current that was used by the extensive Trams system we use to have in Adelaide CBD and Greater Metropolitan Adelaide. There is still a substation on the side side of the old AC tp DC conversion station. www.ask.com/wiki/Trams_in_Adelaide The AC-DC conversion station ceased functioning in 1967 and it is now an office block. www.engineersaustralia.org.au/sites/default/files/Grenfell_Street_Power_Station_Nomination.pdf At the Community Consultation Meeting held at TTG Library, the Team Leader said there is a mass of underground electricity cables and other structures from these early systems that are still used to supply sections of the Adelaide CBD with electricity. This makes it difficult / expensive to think about underground trains / trams / buses from the Eastern Suburbs going under Grenfell Street at this point. www.adelaidenow.com.au/news/south-australia/weatherill-government-unveils-36-billion-public-transport-plan-for-adelaide-including-trams-and-underground-obahn/story-fni6uo1m-1226743876239 stronger.sa.gov.au/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/building_a_stronger_sa-transport.pdf I suggest other Australian cities have overcome these obstacles to get their Underground Trams, Underground Trains & Underground Buses within their CBDs.
Bus Underpasses under major roadway intersections are an essential next step in Adelaide Public Transport. I would suggest that bringing the O-Bahn Tunnel up to ground level within the Rymill Park is NOT the best solution. As a example Central Park in NYC has a number East-West roads that cross the Central Park that carry buses and light vehicles via Cuttings. . 65th St Traverse ruclips.net/video/Pp686Py_UR0/видео.html 79th St Traverse vimeo.com/2930070 ruclips.net/video/serQzT7_b6U/видео.html 86th St Traverse ruclips.net/video/2yEM8h-y7F0/видео.html ruclips.net/video/Gwec3Fc3NHQ/видео.html These traverses have wide "bridges" across the cuttings that are at surface level. Turf is often grown on the surfaces of these bridges. As can be seen pedestrians are allowed to walk on the footpaths at the traverses. Central Park is locked at night so these pedestrian paths do not have paths up into the Park. Keeping the buses at this lower level means future options of bus routes using Traverses is maintained. As soon as you bring the buses up to the surface you have committed yourself. Concentrating all O-Bahn Express Buses to go to Stop T3 in Grenfell Street may NOT be the best solution. Many people want to get the UniSA East Campus, Adelaide Uni & the relocated Adelaide High School on the old RAH site (or what ever is finally done with the old RAH). Currently the buses stop at North Terrace Frome road (M44, C1 & C2) . The G40 bus goes along North Terrace and turns left into King William Street and then goes to Victoria Square. (and the Central Market ) There was a time when the M44 took this route during the day and then changed to a different Route at night along Currie & Grenfell St I lobbied for the daytime route to be maintained at night time. Sadly, Instead the M44 bus route was changed to the Night time route. Using a cutting across the parklands allows the visual aspect to be maintained. Land bridges can be added as needed. Diesel Fumes are a major problem in tunnels. Something to which we in Australia have a blind eye. Paris Mayor pushes to ban non-essential diesel vehicles by 2020\ www.theguardian.com/world/2014/dec/07/paris-mayor-hidalgo-plans-ban-diesel-cars-french-capital-2020 London may follow suit with a ban on diesel cars www.telegraph.co.uk/news/earth/environment/11280067/London-will-follow-Paris-and-ban-diesel-cars-campaigners-warn.html Road Cuttings are being used on two sections of the South Road development for "non-local" traffic to move at high speed and restricted access. Local traffic using bridges "At Ground Level" ruclips.net/video/7Z6MMz-buN4/видео.html The O-Bahn has been a major success who has "many fathers".
London Bendy Bus and new double-decker buses had "Oyster Card" readers at the middle doors. Bendy Bus were removed because of the narrow streets and perceived problems with fare evasion. Double-decker bus still manned by conductors. Metroline New Bus for London LT17, LTZ 1017 route 24 from Pimlico * 1:40 minutes. Passengers can Enter and Exit via these doors. This show how fast they get onto the bus with luggage. A 30 Second "Dwell Time". * 6:19 minutes a wheel chair enters via the middle door and the bus departs at 50 seconds dwell time. Entry for the wheel char has supervision by the conductor. * 9:50 minutes you can see passengers validating their oyster cards - presumably they entered via the back door. * 10:45 minutes a number of passengers enter via the middle door. Again a 30 Second Dwell-time. The next video shows the bus in "Crush Load" Chaos aboard New Bus for London LT17, LTZ 1017
U.K. transport is testing wireless electric buses technology with inductive re-charging at Milton Keynes Wirelessly Charged Electric Bus Trial starts in Milton Keynes - Jan 2014
* Luton to Dunstable is another Guided Busway. Opened in 2013 "The Busway is a transport link that connects Houghton Regis, Dunstable, Toddington, Luton and London Luton Airport." www.busway.net/about www.luton.gov.uk/Transport_and_streets/Transport_planning/Luton%20Dunstable%20Busway/Pages/default.aspx Luton And Dunstable Guided Busway C Grant Palmer Service BU52 WAY * A review of the Cambridge Guided Busway - the longest in the world, "Making it easy for people to travel from where they are to where they want to be." Cambridge Guided bus reviewed by transport expert Robert Bond There are videos showing them using double-decker buses on their guided busway. * In Essen they also built a road underpass alongside the entrance to their CBD Bus and Tram tunnel. The road underpass can be seen at the start of this video Essen dual-mode-bus eastbound. A road Underpass under the North Terrace Extension-Hackney Road Intersection if they decide to take the $160 million AdelaideMetro O-Bahn in that direction. 8 Here is a link to a useful discussion on bus system alternatives. www.tstc.org/images/blog/BronxBRT-Hook.pdf * Doors on both sides of the bus allow easy use of "island bus stations - Central Median" are used in Sao Paulo amongst other cities. VOLVO B9 SALF * TTP Bus interchange uses the trick of an intersection of the bus lanes to allow the buses to present their doors to the "island". Canberra ACT has published an analysis of the options. www.capitalmetro.act.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0007/509875/City-to-Gungahlin-options-fact-sheet.pdf * Median Bus Lane Design in Vancouver BC in 2003 www.urbanstreet.info/2nd_sym_proceedings/Volume%202/Li.pdf "The spacing of bus stops affects the bus travel time, which in turn affects the attractiveness of the service. The number of the bus stops is one of the most significant factors affecting bus travel time. Based on market research conducted for the Greater Vancouver region, passengers are willing to walk further to higher quality services such as rapid transit. For the overall #98 B-Line corridor, the bus stops are spaced at 1.0 to 1.5 km (0.6 to 1.0 mile). In the Richmond City Center, the bus stops are spaced at 0.5 to 1.0 km (0.3 to 0.6 mile) to ensure a high level of accessibility in the higher density area while maintaining attractive travel speeds for passengers. " Provision of U-turns at signalized intersections is also discussed. Brisbane have 3 busways South East, Eastern and Northern Busways which run alongside their motorways, have bus tunnels into the CBD and underground bus stations. This grade separation means they have no conflicts or confusion about right of ways or hold-ups at intersections. South East/Eastern Busway KGS to Langlands Park In Adelaide we only have the highly successful O-Bahn busway that has buses slowing from 80Km per hour to a snail's pace as soon as they emerge onto the Inner Ring Route roadway (Park Terrace at Gilberton) followed bottle-necks at Bridge over the River Torrens - Hackney Road / North Terrace Extension Intersection - North Terrace / East Terrace Intersection - North Terrace / Frome Road Intersection - Grenfell Street "chaos during rush hours" .
Last Friday, 16th January, 2015 my wife and I again travelled from Grenfell Street and caught the 20:02 C1 Bus. The line of waiting passengers stretched passed the 2nd Doorway for City Cross. The bus filled with very little spare standing room. When the Bus moved to Stop I2, Royal Adelaide Hospital, the bus filled to crush loading. The driver attempting to call out to passengers to move down the bus - there is no public address system so his voice was lost past the first few seats. He insisted that passengers moved back from the area by the front door before he could proceed. Last Friday evening was a “normal” night without any special events. On an earlier Friday evening, prior to Xmas, we were on an O-Bahn bus that filled to crush capacity in Grenfell Street. The driver made no attempt to pull into Stop I2, Royal Adelaide Hospital. He drove pasted the people waiting to catch the bus. Xmas late night shopping is a special event that brings many people into the city who otherwise would stay at home on a Friday evening. There is no evidence of extra buses being rostered in that known busy time. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Grenfell Street to North Eastern Suburbs Monday to Friday C1, C2 & M44 Old Timetable Jan 27th Timetable % CHANGE ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 19:00 to 19:59 5 6 20% 20:00 to 20:59 4 4 0% 21:00 to 21:59 4 4 0% 22:00 to 22:59 3 5 67% 23:00 to 23:59 4 2 -50% 00;00 to 00:59 1 1 0% -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- TOTAL buses 21 22 5% -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I note that on January 27th there is a new Bus Roster for Friday Evenings. My analysis is shown above. The one extra Bus between 19:00 and 19:55 should help with with last Friday's returnees waiting for the 20:02 C1 Bus. How-ever between 20:00 and 21:59 there are has no additional buses. The total change is one extra bus in the period between 19:00 and 00:55 Clearly this cannot cope with Fringe Festivals, Bike & Equestrian Events held in the City if it cannot handle the numbers of returnees during “normal” times. Nurses and workers coming off duty at the Hospital are joined by shop workers and patrons going home after the close of Friday Night Late Trading. I suggest Friday Late Night Trading means there should be a different bus roster for that night, compared to that for Monday to Thursday. Festival times will also cause an increase in returnees trying to get home on Saturdays Evening, as compared to "normal" week ends.. One idea would be to provide information about alternative bus routes that get from North Terrace to Paradise Interchange & TTP Interchanges. At the 2014 Fringe we waited at wet and rainy RAH Bus Stop one Saturday evening only to be greeted with buses full to capacity. After 30 minutes of overfull buses we elected to catch the Bus to Athelstone that terminates at Paradise Interchange. An extra 30 minutes in the bus was better than standing around in the pouring rain. There are a number of other non O-Bahn buses that go from East North Terrace to Paradise Interchange and / or Modbury Interchange. In the reverse direction and a different scenario my wife & I were attempting to catch the Royal Show Express Bus at Paradise Interchange around 10:00am on a Weekday. A long line of people and children were waiting for the Special Bus to arrive from TTP Interchange. When it did arrive the Bus was full. The driver came to the door of the bus and told people that the M44 stops near the Royal Show Grounds. (07:00 to 18:50 on Monday to Friday the M44 idoes not stop there, it only picks up passengers. The printed timetable shows "E" for Stop 1 "Bus picks up only" for trips from the City. (Drivers will refuse to open the doors to allow exit from the bus at these "E" stops.) Some people moved from Zone B to Zone A to catch the M44 bus. The driver did allow us to exit at Stop 1 & about a dozen people walked the short distance from Stop 1 on Anzac Highway over Greenhill Rd ant into the Rose Street Entrance of the Wayville Show Grounds. The return journey using the M44 would have been problematic. The printed timetable shows "D Bus sets down only" for trips to towards the City from Stop 1 Anzac Highway. The G40 Bus is another alternative from Tea Tree Plaza & Paradise Interchanges It stops at Stop 1 onGoodwood Road a short walk from the Goodwood Road entrance to the Wayville Show Grounds. The printed timetable shows now restrictions on set down or pick-up for the G40 at Stop 1 Goodwood Road The Big TV displays at Paradise made no reference to that the fact that the Royal Show Express Bus was full to capacity and would not be accepting any passengers. I suggest that in times of overload there should be point of departure information about alternative routes when the system is at and above capacity. DPTI has implemented Text to Voice information systems at all Railway Stations. Similar technology could be used at relatively low cost to warn people at Key / Busy Locations of problems and provide them with viable alternatives for large groups of passengers. AdelaideMetro has two "talking buses" that use text to voice technology to communicate with passengers. It would be helpful to all passengers if the technology was extended to include all buses. This technology is fitted to all trams. Football has rosters of additional buses for events at the Adelaide Oval redevelopment. I suggest that if we are to be a “Festival City” and a “City with a Vibrant Centre” we should be providing sufficient buses and / or information to allow people to get home.
Congratulations on the new statistics information portal for Adelaide Metro www.adelaidemetro.com.au/About-us/On-Time-Running Being on-time is a very important consideration. The map of the contracts areas for the various operators is also useful. What would be even more useful would be details about passenger numbers and loadings. The MetroCard scanners are collecting an enormous amount of information and the on board security cameras must be recording useful information about passengers. On Anzac Day my wife and I drove to Paradise Park and Ride around 13:30 to catch a bus to the city. There were a large number of cars in the car park for a Saturday afternoon. Record crowds were predicted for the various ANZAC Day events in the city so presumably some extra passenger capacity was foresightful ? Various articulated buses brought passengers into the Paradise Interchange as we waited for our through-bus to the city to arrive from Modbury. About 35 people were waiting when a small / standard size M44 bus arrived. It was was already about 90% full. Luckily we were near the head of the line and got onto the bus and got the last seat at the back of the bus. A lady with a pram could see there was no chance to get onto the bus and I saw her abandoned her attempt to get onto the bus. The Bus filled to "Crush Capacity" and departed leaving about 10 passengers behind. (The lack of a Public Address System hampering his voice being heard at the back of the bus) At the Klemzig Bus Station a single person got off the bus. Allowing one person onto the bus. About 12 other people waiting at Klemzig Bus Station were refused entry onto the bus. The return journey in the evening was on an articulated bus that was about 75% full. Is there somewhere for the drivers to record that the Bus / Train / Tram has reached "crush loading" and that passengers have had to be left behind. Is there the possibility of publishing this information as part of the "live" feed onto the web? Could this information be added to this Portal? The O-Bahn is certainly a popular service.
Inductive electric powering of buses "Olev" by Kaist in South Korea World's first inductive powered bus network. World's First Road Embedded Wireless Electric Bus Network
8:02 - Mercedes Benz O405NH 542 on 'Route 542'.
This is the only Mercedes Benz bus still on busway duties, manufactured in 2002 to commemorate the 20th Anniversary of the introduction to the O-Bahn Busway.
With more modern BRT concepts, passengers pay off of the bus, all doors open, passengers can get on board through all doors, making the station dwell time much shorter. Watch some videos of the BRT in Curitiba, Brazil.
Thanks Odontomatrix for your feedback.
Adelaide has a population of 1.3 million people density of 400 people per square kilometer.
The Curitibia's population numbered approximately 1.9 million people as of 2015 with 4,100 people per square kilometer.
The much lower density in Adelaide means some of the BRT ideas may need to be modified or applied in a different way.
The long dwell times for our buses was highlighted by the transport experts back in 1978 in the NEAPTR Report. The decision makers have ignored the problem because of cost.
There are very few ticket inspectors in Adelaide Buses. I have only had my bus ticket check once or twice in 50 years of travelling on our buses. Adelaide relies on the bus driver being a "ticket inspector" Hence all entry of buses is via the front door. The other doors can only be used to exit from the buses.
MetroCard validators have been installed on all buses, trains and trams and will accept both Metrocards and the older Crouzet tickets. On trams and trains there are two MetroCard validators at each door.
Buses, however only have the one MetroCard validator.
In Adelaide, people have to TAG ON with buses, trains and trams.
However Adelaide Railway Station is the only place where passengers have to TAG OFF. This means they managers of the system have no way of knowing people's ultimate destinations. Nor do they know how many people are on a bus at any point along the trip. This contrasts to Perth and Sydney where TAG OFF is mandatory. The card is charged the longest trip on that route if they fail to TAG OFF.
IF Adelaide's buses had one or two Validation Machines at each door the entry would be a lot faster than currently happens.
Our validation machines are quite large in size because they also validate older Crouzet cardboard tickets.
London Transport has small validation machines on their buses for their Oyster Cards.
Adelaide's planners were considering to implement Super Bus Stops which are an emulation Curitibia's Bus Stations. But that idea has stalled.
I have been lobbying for MetroCard validators at all doors on Buses and for all Bus Doors to be legal for entry into the bus.
I have been informed that $1 million has been set aside to put validation machines on all doors when the O-Bahn Bus Tunnel is completed. At the same time they plan to improve the Tea Tree Plaza Bus Interchange.
Thanks very much for your detailed reply. I posted my remark mainly so other viewers wouldn't get the impression that BRT is always slow loading this way.
My own small county (Santa Cruz, California, population about 250,000) purchased a rail corridor that runs the length of the county along its coast. The county’s population density is one of the highest in California, with approximately 90,000 people living within one-half mile of the rail line. Areas along the rail line have population densities similar to Berkeley/Oakland and cities along the San Francisco Bay Peninsula. The density of people in the largest city, City of Santa Cruz, and the Seacliff area are approximately 4,000/square mile; Live Oak ranges from 5,300 to 7,100 people/square mile, and the City of Watsonville has over 7,500 people/square mile.
The regional transportation commission (RTC) has done various studies for using the corridor. They're in the process of building a pedestrian/bicycle trail on a portion of the width, and have studied passenger rail service on the single track freight line that no longer carries freight along the most populated section of the county. The old rails and switches are only good enough for slow freight trains, not commuter service, so they need to be replaced. The freeway is heavily congested in commute hours. Since I discovered Adelaide's O-Bahn on RUclips videos like this one and investigated other guided busways, I've been writing letters urging the RTC to do a cost/benefit comparison of guided BRT versus the LRT they have studied. I argue that the rails and old ties (sleepers) and some of the ballast (gravel) must be replaced anyway, so removing the rails is no loss. They should consider a curb-guideway and guided battery-powered buses.
The accomplishments of Adelaide, Cambridge, etc., with guided busways is inspiring. I really think for our county a light-rail system would be over-kill and wouldn't provide direct service from the existing southern bus transit hub to the main bus center in downtown Santa Cruz, whereas the versatility of the bus system being able to exit the busway and travel on city streets to bus centers, shopping districts, and employment centers, would bring passengers to their destination with fewer transfers, if any. A train can't do that. The one-lane guideway with passing sections could be used by buses to bypass the slow-and-go congested freeway in the commute direction, with the buses returning to the start via the non-congested side of the freeway. In the afternoon, when the commute is the opposite directions, the buses would circulate the other direction, still bypassing the congestion. The route is 20 miles in each direction.
A guided busway seems perfect for us. I hope to convince the RTC commissioners to give it careful consideration, which so far they haven't done even though a major study in 1998 recommended a 2-lane non-guided busway at that time. I think the problem is that the RTC staff and commissioners have never heard about guided busways, which I'm trying to correct.
Thanks again for your reply, for posting this video, and for the additional information in the links below.
People using the O-Bahn really love it.
Buses get onto and off the guided pathway at TTP, Paradise & Klemzig. In one of my video I show the full hinterland that benefits from the O-Bahn.
The Bus routes in Rush Periods are NOT "all stop buses" For example the buses with "X" added to the Route Number will have shorter the travel time because they going pass a number of bus-stops without stopping.
The absolute grade separation is a secret of fast and safe travel on the O-Bahn.
The Original O-Bahn in Essen, Germany, had wood guideways in the tunnels and on the surface.
The concrete pathway in Adelaide is the original concrete at the opening in 1989 . Steel rails would not have lasted this length of time.
One problem is bus manufacturers vary the width of their buses. Guideway buses need to be a fixed width if they are to use the guideway.
Buses on the O-Bahn get up to 80 Kph
If Santa Cruz County is joining with say Monterey County you might like to look at our other success story involving buses.
"Multimodal Bike, Bus & Train Seaford Line Adelaide Feb 2015"
ruclips.net/video/gA9n_xFfFl8/видео.html
AdelaideMetro trains can reach 110 Kph where the distance between the stations is sufficient for them to be able to reach that speed. The passenger trains (light rail) could go faster if the tracks were upgraded and the "level crossings" were removed.
There are four Australasian bus-based transit systems that qualify for BRT status:
scholarcommons.usf.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1282&context=jpt
• Adelaide North East Busway (ANEB)
• Brisbane South East Busway (BSEB)
• Brisbane Inner Northern Busway (BINB)
• Sydney Liverpool-Parramatta Transitway (SLPT)
Each system has unique and distinctive features and functions; even the two Brisbane systems have different functions. The Adelaide busway is a guided bus system using guide wheels on the side of buses to enable a smoother and faster ride along the busway. The other systems are unguided and operate as effective bus-only roads with different strategic functions:
• SLPT is a cross-corridor service linking two major sub-regional centres in Western Sydney. An interesting part of this arrangement is that the transitway termini, Liverpool and Parramatta, are already linked by a direct rail service. The transitway loops to the west of the direct rail service, linking suburbs to the west with both centres.
• BSEB performs a central CBD radial function from southeastern suburbs.
It is a major radial corridor service stretching from the CBD to the edge of Brisbane’s sprawling suburban development.
• BINB is also radial but is short in length. Its major design rationale was to provide a traffic-free, fast, high-quality link to the CBD for the large number of northern corridor bus services. These services (like the South Eastern corridor routes) used to share congested inner city roads with traffic. Road bridges accessing the CBD were particularly difficult bottlenecks and had a significant impact on bus operating speeds and reliability. The busways considerably improve on this performance
"Bus Rapid Transit in Australasia: Performance, Lessons Learned and Futures"
by Professor Graham Currie
Institute of Transport Studies, Monash University.
The O-Bahn busway is a very important piece of infrastructure and Adelaide would be very boring without it.
It has been used over 50 billion times, especially for the Festival of Arts, Fringe Festival, WOMADelaide, Clipsal 500 and the Royal Adelaide Show.
I really would like to see it cleaned by some special machine.
Valley Road in Hope Valley has 556 & 557 buses that have three possibilities when travelling UP to the City.
* 556 & 557 labelled buses that terminate at Paradise Interchange
* 556X & 557X labelled buses that stop at Paradise Interchange, do NOT stop at Klemzig Interchange & then proceed to the CBD and terminate at stop W4 in Currie Street
The return journey starts at Stop C1 is on the Western Side of Light Square.
* 556 & 557 labelled buses that stop at Paradise Interchange, DO stop at Klemzig Interchange & then proceed to the CBD and terminate at stop W4 in Currie Street.
The return journey starts at Stop C1 is on the Western Side of Light Square.
I suggest that this last group should be Labelled 556C & 557C or something similar when they are traveled through to Currie Street. They are an all stop bus - Excellent.
At present a person standing on the street seeing a 556 or 557 bus does not know where it will terminated. They are use to it terminating at Paradise, The excellent enhancement of a trip into the City on a single bus is not currently being communicated by the Signage on the exterior of the passengers. They have to ask the driver when they get onto the bus.
Here is the information the Original O-Bahn buses in Essen Germany
The were upgrading their trams so they decided to move them underground in an effort to reduce congestion in their CBD, They also took the opportunity to experiment with their Trolley Buses using the same tunnels as the Trams.
Here is a report of what they were did at that time.
"In Essen the buses only serves tramway stops in the tunnels. Here the first step is almost in level with the edge of the platforms. As two of the stops are stations with a central platform. The buses were modified with additional doors on the left as well as on the right side to serve the central platforms."
"The joint use of track by bus and tram in tunnels in Essen requires many more modifications to the buses then an exclusively guided bus operation. Driving the buses with internal combustion engines was not considered feasible, as it would be required to install a costly automatic ventilation system. The buses should therefore have two drive systems operating independently of each other. The change over from diesel engine to electric traction was made at suitable stops in the network. The driver can control the attachment and disconnection from the catenary system from his cab."
"It was decided to not interfere with the existing tram catenary system. Because the buses could not fit a pantograph they built a complete separate catenary system of the normal trolleybus type. Therefore the buses was able to run at 750 V and the tram could retain the 600 V system. In the tunnels the trolleybus catenary was kept aside the trams in a low position because of lack of height. Power for the trolley system was supplied from four separate rectifier substations."
"In 1995 the German government cut down the funding for the experiment. At the same time it occurred several re-wirings in the tunnels, that showed that part of the catenary needed rebuilding. It was therefore decided to quit operation in the tunnels and use the buses only in diesel mode over ground. The guided tracks are still in use.
Reason for this was that operational cost for duobuses was 25 % higher than for articulated dieselbuses. Due to greater complexity they needed 50% more maintenance time. Still the duobus was cheaper to run than a tram with equal passenger carrying capacity. What influenced the decision to stop operations in trolley bus mode was the slowness and inefficiency of the suppliers of the electric components."
"This is an important factor why the duobuses still operates every day on streets in Essen, but now only powered by diesel-engines. The catenary is still in place, but the trolley poles lie flat on the vehicle roof."
www.tbus.org.uk/R-00-70.pdf
See page 22 -26 of the above December 2000 report from Sweden.
Presumably we in South Australia will follow the Queensland example and use Diesel Buses in our tunnels.
Since 2003, Turin Italy Gruppo Torinese Trasporti has used electric minibuses charged within 7 minutes
www.conductix.com/en/news/2012-05-31/10-years-electric-buses-iptr-charge
file:///F:/Download/study_2726_en.pdf
In addition to 223 CNG buses, the company has introduced 23 electric buses which run in the city centre. The electric buses are 7.48 meters long and have 37 passenger places; 15 seated and 22 standing. They can reach a maximum velocity of 70 km/h, and their drivability is as comfortable as a traditional bus, but
with less noise. Their energy consumption is 95 kWh/100km.
With the relocation of hospital beds from Modbury Hospital to Lyell McEwan their is increased need to get to that Hospital from the Modbury Interchange.
It would be useful if the C1 Bus called into the Lyell McEwan Hospital. This would involve a slightly longer trip along Philip Highway & Oldham Road, instead of going along the Main North Road between Hillbank and Elizabeth CBD.
Currently the 560 bus takes 54 minute for TTP interchange to Lyell McEwen Hospital. The C1 bus could do the same trip in 20 minutes if the route was changed.
Stop 56 on Main North Road could be replaced with Stop 54C on Oldham Road
There are real problems with cars parking the the streets around the Lyell McEwan Hospital.
www.adelaidenow.com.au/news/south-australia/lyell-mcewin-hospital-parking-chaos-leaves-mum-stuck-in-her-own-driveway/story-e6frea83-1226595529996
Even better if the buses were programmed to go onto the Hospital Driveway so that people with disability can easily use public transport.
If Up and Down buses used the side of the driveway adjacent to the Front Door there would be no need for disabled persons having to cross the driveway. This would involve the Down buses doing a "go-around".
Adelaide Transport seems to put the Bus Stops on the wrong side of parking lots - our deference to motor car drives knows no bounds.
Grenfell Street & East Terrace is a busy location.
On the South West Corner is the site of a power station that was owned by Adelaide Electric Supply Company (AESC) and functioned until 1925.
The AESC was Nationalised in 1946 by the Thomas Playford Jr Liberal and Country League Government.
www.ask.com/wiki/Electricity_Trust_of_South_Australia
On the south side of the Power Station there was a AC to DC conversion station to produce the 600 Volt DC current that was used by the extensive Trams system we use to have in Adelaide CBD and Greater Metropolitan Adelaide.
There is still a substation on the side side of the old AC tp DC conversion station.
www.ask.com/wiki/Trams_in_Adelaide
The AC-DC conversion station ceased functioning in 1967 and it is now an office block.
www.engineersaustralia.org.au/sites/default/files/Grenfell_Street_Power_Station_Nomination.pdf
At the Community Consultation Meeting held at TTG Library, the Team Leader said there is a mass of underground electricity cables and other structures from these early systems that are still used to supply sections of the Adelaide CBD with electricity.
This makes it difficult / expensive to think about underground trains / trams / buses from the Eastern Suburbs going under Grenfell Street at this point.
www.adelaidenow.com.au/news/south-australia/weatherill-government-unveils-36-billion-public-transport-plan-for-adelaide-including-trams-and-underground-obahn/story-fni6uo1m-1226743876239
stronger.sa.gov.au/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/building_a_stronger_sa-transport.pdf
I suggest other Australian cities have overcome these obstacles to get their Underground Trams, Underground Trains & Underground Buses within their CBDs.
Bus Underpasses under major roadway intersections are an essential next step in Adelaide Public Transport.
I would suggest that bringing the O-Bahn Tunnel up to ground level within the Rymill Park is NOT the best solution.
As a example Central Park in NYC has a number East-West roads that cross the Central Park that carry buses and light vehicles via Cuttings.
.
65th St Traverse
ruclips.net/video/Pp686Py_UR0/видео.html
79th St Traverse
vimeo.com/2930070
ruclips.net/video/serQzT7_b6U/видео.html
86th St Traverse
ruclips.net/video/2yEM8h-y7F0/видео.html
ruclips.net/video/Gwec3Fc3NHQ/видео.html
These traverses have wide "bridges" across the cuttings that are at surface level. Turf is often grown on the surfaces of these bridges.
As can be seen pedestrians are allowed to walk on the footpaths at the traverses. Central Park is locked at night so these pedestrian paths do not have paths up into the Park.
Keeping the buses at this lower level means future options of bus routes using Traverses is maintained. As soon as you bring the buses up to the surface you have committed yourself.
Concentrating all O-Bahn Express Buses to go to Stop T3 in Grenfell Street may NOT be the best solution. Many people want to get the UniSA East Campus, Adelaide Uni & the relocated Adelaide High School on the old RAH site (or what ever is finally done with the old RAH). Currently the buses stop at North Terrace Frome road (M44, C1 & C2) .
The G40 bus goes along North Terrace and turns left into King William Street and then goes to Victoria Square. (and the Central Market )
There was a time when the M44 took this route during the day and then changed to a different Route at night along Currie & Grenfell St I lobbied for the daytime route to be maintained at night time. Sadly, Instead the M44 bus route was changed to the Night time route.
Using a cutting across the parklands allows the visual aspect to be maintained. Land bridges can be added as needed.
Diesel Fumes are a major problem in tunnels. Something to which we in Australia have a blind eye.
Paris Mayor pushes to ban non-essential diesel vehicles by 2020\
www.theguardian.com/world/2014/dec/07/paris-mayor-hidalgo-plans-ban-diesel-cars-french-capital-2020
London may follow suit with a ban on diesel cars
www.telegraph.co.uk/news/earth/environment/11280067/London-will-follow-Paris-and-ban-diesel-cars-campaigners-warn.html
Road Cuttings are being used on two sections of the South Road development for "non-local" traffic to move at high speed and restricted access. Local traffic using bridges "At Ground Level"
ruclips.net/video/7Z6MMz-buN4/видео.html
The O-Bahn has been a major success who has "many fathers".
London Bendy Bus and new double-decker buses had "Oyster Card" readers at the middle doors.
Bendy Bus were removed because of the narrow streets and perceived problems with fare evasion. Double-decker bus still manned by conductors.
Metroline New Bus for London LT17, LTZ 1017 route 24 from Pimlico
* 1:40 minutes. Passengers can Enter and Exit via these doors.
This show how fast they get onto the bus with luggage. A 30 Second "Dwell Time".
* 6:19 minutes a wheel chair enters via the middle door and the bus departs at 50 seconds dwell time. Entry for the wheel char has supervision by the conductor.
* 9:50 minutes you can see passengers validating their oyster cards - presumably they entered via the back door.
* 10:45 minutes a number of passengers enter via the middle door. Again a 30 Second Dwell-time.
The next video shows the bus in "Crush Load"
Chaos aboard New Bus for London LT17, LTZ 1017
U.K. transport is testing wireless electric buses technology with inductive re-charging at Milton Keynes
Wirelessly Charged Electric Bus Trial starts in Milton Keynes - Jan 2014
* Luton to Dunstable is another Guided Busway. Opened in 2013
"The Busway is a transport link that connects Houghton Regis, Dunstable, Toddington, Luton and London Luton Airport."
www.busway.net/about
www.luton.gov.uk/Transport_and_streets/Transport_planning/Luton%20Dunstable%20Busway/Pages/default.aspx
Luton And Dunstable Guided Busway C Grant Palmer Service BU52 WAY
* A review of the Cambridge Guided Busway - the longest in the world,
"Making it easy for people to travel from where they are to where they want to be."
Cambridge Guided bus reviewed by transport expert Robert Bond
There are videos showing them using double-decker buses on their guided busway.
* In Essen they also built a road underpass alongside the entrance to their CBD Bus and Tram tunnel. The road underpass can be seen at the start of this video
Essen dual-mode-bus eastbound.
A road Underpass under the North Terrace Extension-Hackney Road Intersection if they decide to take the $160 million AdelaideMetro O-Bahn in that direction.
8 Here is a link to a useful discussion on bus system alternatives.
www.tstc.org/images/blog/BronxBRT-Hook.pdf
* Doors on both sides of the bus allow easy use of "island bus stations - Central Median" are used in Sao Paulo amongst other cities.
VOLVO B9 SALF
* TTP Bus interchange uses the trick of an intersection of the bus lanes to allow the buses to present their doors to the "island".
Canberra ACT has published an analysis of the options.
www.capitalmetro.act.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0007/509875/City-to-Gungahlin-options-fact-sheet.pdf
* Median Bus Lane Design in Vancouver BC in 2003
www.urbanstreet.info/2nd_sym_proceedings/Volume%202/Li.pdf
"The spacing of bus stops affects the bus travel time, which in turn affects the attractiveness of the service. The number of the bus stops is one of the most significant factors affecting bus travel time. Based on market research conducted for the Greater Vancouver region, passengers are willing to walk further to higher quality services such as rapid transit. For the overall #98 B-Line corridor, the bus stops are spaced at 1.0 to 1.5 km (0.6 to 1.0 mile). In the Richmond City Center, the bus stops are spaced at 0.5 to 1.0 km (0.3 to 0.6 mile) to ensure a high level of accessibility in the higher density area while maintaining attractive travel speeds for passengers. "
Provision of U-turns at signalized intersections is also discussed.
Brisbane have 3 busways South East, Eastern and Northern Busways which run alongside their motorways, have bus tunnels into the CBD and underground bus stations. This grade separation means they have no conflicts or confusion about right of ways or hold-ups at intersections.
South East/Eastern Busway KGS to Langlands Park
In Adelaide we only have the highly successful O-Bahn busway that has buses slowing from 80Km per hour to a snail's pace as soon as they emerge onto the Inner Ring Route roadway (Park Terrace at Gilberton) followed bottle-necks at Bridge over the River Torrens - Hackney Road / North Terrace Extension Intersection - North Terrace / East Terrace Intersection - North Terrace / Frome Road Intersection - Grenfell Street "chaos during rush hours" .
Last Friday, 16th January, 2015 my wife and I again travelled from Grenfell Street and caught the 20:02 C1 Bus. The line of waiting passengers stretched passed the 2nd Doorway for City Cross. The bus filled with very little spare standing room.
When the Bus moved to Stop I2, Royal Adelaide Hospital, the bus filled to crush loading.
The driver attempting to call out to passengers to move down the bus - there is no public address system so his voice was lost past the first few seats. He insisted that passengers moved back from the area by the front door before he could proceed.
Last Friday evening was a “normal” night without any special events.
On an earlier Friday evening, prior to Xmas, we were on an O-Bahn bus that filled to crush capacity in Grenfell Street. The driver made no attempt to pull into Stop I2, Royal Adelaide Hospital. He drove pasted the people waiting to catch the bus.
Xmas late night shopping is a special event that brings many people into the city who otherwise would stay at home on a Friday evening. There is no evidence of extra buses being rostered in that known busy time.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Grenfell Street to North Eastern Suburbs Monday to Friday
C1, C2 & M44 Old Timetable Jan 27th Timetable % CHANGE
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
19:00 to 19:59 5 6 20%
20:00 to 20:59 4 4 0%
21:00 to 21:59 4 4 0%
22:00 to 22:59 3 5 67%
23:00 to 23:59 4 2 -50%
00;00 to 00:59 1 1 0%
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
TOTAL buses 21 22 5%
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I note that on January 27th there is a new Bus Roster for Friday Evenings. My analysis is shown above.
The one extra Bus between 19:00 and 19:55 should help with with last Friday's returnees waiting for the 20:02 C1 Bus. How-ever between 20:00 and 21:59 there are has no additional buses.
The total change is one extra bus in the period between 19:00 and 00:55
Clearly this cannot cope with Fringe Festivals, Bike & Equestrian Events held in the City if it cannot handle the numbers of returnees during “normal” times.
Nurses and workers coming off duty at the Hospital are joined by shop workers and patrons going home after the close of Friday Night Late Trading.
I suggest Friday Late Night Trading means there should be a different bus roster for that night, compared to that for Monday to Thursday.
Festival times will also cause an increase in returnees trying to get home on Saturdays Evening, as compared to "normal" week ends..
One idea would be to provide information about alternative bus routes that get from North Terrace to Paradise Interchange & TTP Interchanges.
At the 2014 Fringe we waited at wet and rainy RAH Bus Stop one Saturday evening only to be greeted with buses full to capacity. After 30 minutes of overfull buses we elected to catch the Bus to Athelstone that terminates at Paradise Interchange. An extra 30 minutes in the bus was better than standing around in the pouring rain. There are a number of other non O-Bahn buses that go from East North Terrace to Paradise Interchange and / or Modbury Interchange.
In the reverse direction and a different scenario my wife & I were attempting to catch the Royal Show Express Bus at Paradise Interchange around 10:00am on a Weekday. A long line of people and children were waiting for the Special Bus to arrive from TTP Interchange. When it did arrive the Bus was full.
The driver came to the door of the bus and told people that the M44 stops near the Royal Show Grounds. (07:00 to 18:50 on Monday to Friday the M44 idoes not stop there, it only picks up passengers. The printed timetable shows "E" for Stop 1 "Bus picks up only" for trips from the City. (Drivers will refuse to open the doors to allow exit from the bus at these "E" stops.)
Some people moved from Zone B to Zone A to catch the M44 bus. The driver did allow us to exit at Stop 1 & about a dozen people walked the short distance from Stop 1 on Anzac Highway over Greenhill Rd ant into the Rose Street Entrance of the Wayville Show Grounds.
The return journey using the M44 would have been problematic. The printed timetable shows "D Bus sets down only" for trips to towards the City from Stop 1 Anzac Highway.
The G40 Bus is another alternative from Tea Tree Plaza & Paradise Interchanges It stops at Stop 1 onGoodwood Road a short walk from the Goodwood Road entrance to the Wayville Show Grounds. The printed timetable shows now restrictions on set down or pick-up for the G40 at Stop 1 Goodwood Road
The Big TV displays at Paradise made no reference to that the fact that the Royal Show Express Bus was full to capacity and would not be accepting any passengers.
I suggest that in times of overload there should be point of departure information about alternative routes when the system is at and above capacity. DPTI has implemented Text to Voice information systems at all Railway Stations. Similar technology could be used at relatively low cost to warn people at Key / Busy Locations of problems and provide them with viable alternatives for large groups of passengers.
AdelaideMetro has two "talking buses" that use text to voice technology to communicate with passengers. It would be helpful to all passengers if the technology was extended to include all buses. This technology is fitted to all trams.
Football has rosters of additional buses for events at the Adelaide Oval redevelopment.
I suggest that if we are to be a “Festival City” and a “City with a Vibrant Centre” we should be providing sufficient buses and / or information to allow people to get home.
Congratulations on the new statistics information portal for Adelaide Metro
www.adelaidemetro.com.au/About-us/On-Time-Running
Being on-time is a very important consideration.
The map of the contracts areas for the various operators is also useful.
What would be even more useful would be details about passenger numbers and loadings.
The MetroCard scanners are collecting an enormous amount of information and the on board security cameras must be recording useful information about passengers.
On Anzac Day my wife and I drove to Paradise Park and Ride around 13:30 to catch a bus to the city.
There were a large number of cars in the car park for a Saturday afternoon.
Record crowds were predicted for the various ANZAC Day events in the city so presumably some extra passenger capacity was foresightful ?
Various articulated buses brought passengers into the Paradise Interchange as we waited for our through-bus to the city to arrive from Modbury.
About 35 people were waiting when a small / standard size M44 bus arrived. It was was already about 90% full.
Luckily we were near the head of the line and got onto the bus and got the last seat at the back of the bus.
A lady with a pram could see there was no chance to get onto the bus and I saw her abandoned her attempt to get onto the bus.
The Bus filled to "Crush Capacity" and departed leaving about 10 passengers behind. (The lack of a Public Address System hampering his voice being heard at the back of the bus)
At the Klemzig Bus Station a single person got off the bus. Allowing one person onto the bus.
About 12 other people waiting at Klemzig Bus Station were refused entry onto the bus.
The return journey in the evening was on an articulated bus that was about 75% full.
Is there somewhere for the drivers to record that the Bus / Train / Tram has reached "crush loading" and that passengers have had to be left behind.
Is there the possibility of publishing this information as part of the "live" feed onto the web?
Could this information be added to this Portal?
The O-Bahn is certainly a popular service.
you have Mercedes benz 0405nh 542 on route 542 u are the best 8 15
Inductive electric powering of buses "Olev" by Kaist in South Korea
World's first inductive powered bus network.
World's First Road Embedded Wireless Electric Bus Network