focus

November 2011

Bus Rapid Transit (BRT)

systems: a bit more than just
segregated lanes?

a BRT project can be delivered

in less than half the time of
alternative solutions

BRT systems are once again making the headlines. In the UK the
Cambridge St Ives system, the longest BRT line in the world was
launched in August 2011, while the city of Rio de Janeiro just announced a
public concession to implement and operate an Olympic BRT.
So what is BRT?
At first glance BRT is a public transport
system based on buses running in
segregated lanes. However, behind the
day-to-day operations there is a complex
interaction of bus services, Intelligent
Transportation Systems (ITS), lane
management policies, Public Private
Partnerships (PPP) procurement and
a strong political will to redesign public
transport in a city.
It is the blend of these elements that
makes a BRT system successful.

This is up to five times cheaper

than LRT and 10 times cheaper
than metro. The cost varies with
the specific characteristics of each
system and, in particular, the level
of segregation and integration with
other modes.

There are three main reasons behind the

increased interest in BRT systems:

Higher Performance Services: A

combination of high-frequency,
high-capacity bus services, overpass
lanes and station designs can lead
BRTs to have a capacity of more
than 40k pax/hr/dir. This compares
with Light Rail Transit (LRT) (15k
pax/hr/dir) or metro (80k pax/hr/dir).
Cheaper than alternative
solutions: A BRT system entails
a construction cost ranging
from $1 to 12 million per km.

Shorter Implementation Times:

As with construction cost, the
implementation time is driven by
the complexity of the system, but
in general a BRT project can be
delivered in less than half the time
of any of the alternative solutions
(metro or LRT).

Capitalcosts(US$million/km)

350

Underground
Metro

80

the transport system moulded

community development

Elevated
Rail

60
40
20

LRT
BRT
20,000

40,000

60,000

Passengersperhourperdirection
BasedonBusRapidTransitPlanningGuideJune2007
Curitiba - setting the standard
Curitiba in Brazil was, without doubt,
the city in Latin America that set the
benchmark for transport planning within
a development strategy. The local
government directed all the public offices
to work efficiently and in co-ordination
towards the same general objective: a
sustainable city.
In 1965, the new administration
responded to fears of uncontrolled
development spreading across the city
with a new Master Plan.
This new Master Plan integrated
transportation with land use planning.
It limited central area growth while
promoting high density industrial and
residential developments along the main
transportation corridors, designed to
radiate from the city centre to the external
zones. The city centre was partly closed
to vehicle traffic and pedestrian streets
were created as replacements.
Consequently, the traditional morning
one-way peak congestion changed to a
more balanced distribution of traffic in
both directions. The transport system
moulded community development as
much as the community dictating its
structure.
Other policies also contributed to the
success. Land within two blocks of the
public transport corridors was zoned for
high density and, residential densities
beyond were tapered in proportion to the
distance from main corridors.
The backbone of the Master Plan was
a hierarchical BRT system. Minibuses
routing through residential areas fed
passengers to conventional buses on
orbital routes around the central area and
on inter-district routes. Articulated and biarticulated bus services ran along the five
main radial corridors.

Buses running along dedicated lanes

used cylindrical, clear-walled stations
with ticket barriers, level access and
wheelchair lifts. A single fare system
allowed passengers to travel throughout
the system with unlimited transfers
between buses at interchanges.

The proposed system was based on

articulated buses running along the
central lanes of existing major highways,
fully segregated from general traffic and
with enclosed bus stations with ticket
barriers, paid zones, platforms and travel
information.

Concessions were given to private

companies to operate the system under
agreement with the local authority.
Operators were paid by distance
travelled (veh-km.) rather than by number
of passengers, allowing a balanced
distribution of bus routes and eliminating
congestion on main roads.

Most of the roads for the articulated

services were dual carriageways with
all stations having additional lanes to
accommodate both local and express
services without delays.

Curitibas BRT was a success. It reduced

travel times across the city, improved
the level of service on public transport,
reduced the usage of private vehicles and
brought environmental benefits to the city.
Bogot - taking BRT to the next level
The BRT system in Bogot took the
concepts developed and tested in
Curitiba and applied them to a much
bigger city.
In 1999 the newly elected mayor
scrapped all plans for metro projects and
directed all the effort into implementing,
within only four years, Phase I of what it
is now one of the most famous BRTs in
the world: TransMilenio.
The project was progressed on two
parallel fronts.
First, the technical aspects behind
designing and planning a bus system
capable of carrying more than 40k
passengers / hour / direction. The results
of the technical analysis was a detailed
strategy to develop, over 16 years, 22
corridors (388km) of fully-segregated
lanes across the city serving 5 million
passengers per day.

The system was complemented with

feeder buses of lower capacity, running
from the terminal stations onto the local
roads. Interchange between articulated
and feeder buses occurred at terminal
stations at no extra cost and with
negligible transfer times.
A major investment in infrastructure was
an important element of the project. The
administration spared no cost to build the
BRT system as a multi-modal corridor. It
invested not only in the BRT components
but also in upgrading parallel highways,
building cycle paths and on sidewalk
maintenance, always having the BRT
system as the axis for this integrated
investment.
The second challenge was to design
and sell the new business structure.
A new public company was created to
manage and plan the system, given
the eponymous title Transmilenio S.A.
(TMSA).
Managed by TMSA, the system
was planned to operate under PPP
concessions. Tenders were issued to
select operators for the articulated and
feeder buses. An operator for ticket and
revenue handling was also selected
through a similar open tender.

the system was designed to

operate with smartcards

Tendering conditions for the bus

operators encouraged the creation of
consortia of traditional local companies
associated with national and international
investors.
Bus operators were responsible for
buying and operating the buses while
TMSA was responsible for managing the
contracts, defining and supervising the
service operation (routes, frequencies,
etc) and monitoring the number of
passengers.
The system infrastructure was financed
by the government.
Different rules were set for the articulated
and feeder bus operators, with the latter
having lower requirements and hence
easier access for more local consortia
unable to support the higher investment
required for the articulated bus tender.
The ticketing system was also privately
operated. The system was designed to
operate with smartcards from the outset.
Money collected from card sales was
deposited in a fund, from which the
operators were paid according to the
rules set out in the concession contracts.
The system had a fixed fare allowing
passengers to use any articulated
or feeder service within the system,
regardless of distance travelled or
number of interchanges.
The fare was set by TMSA to cover all the
operational costs, without subsidy from
the government.
The articulated buses were paid on
the basis of veh-km., feeder buses
per passenger, the ticket operator by
the number of tickets sold and TMSA
received 3% of the total revenue.

Phase 1 of the system (40km) opened

in 2001 and immediately changed the
dynamics of the city. With bus services
travelling at an average speed of 25km/
hr, and some express services peaking
at 40km/hr, travel times dropped
dramatically.
Private vehicles also benefited from the
upgrades in the highway infrastructure.
Land use was reorganised around the
BRT corridors and all the investment risks
taken by the private companies paid off.
In 2004 Phase 2 (40km) started with
similar conditions but removing some
of the contractual differences between
the articulated and feeder buses
concessions. Phase 3 is currently under
construction and is planned to start
operations in 2012.
Santiago de Chile - re-learning lessons
The BRT project in the Chilean capital
built upon the experiences from Bogot
and Curitiba. It had, in principle, the same
idea of restructuring public transport to
have a trunk-feeder system based on
buses, but this time using the existing
metro as the backbone of the project.
As in the other two cities, the new
system was structured under concession
contracts awarded to private companies,
selected through a competitive bidding
process, by the Ministry of Transportation
and Telecommunications (MTT).

Instead of bus lanes in the centre of the

road, buses ran on the external right
lanes with only some sections being fully
segregated. Buses operated with lower
platforms and right-hand doors to give
access from the existing sidewalks.
Bus stations also received a low level of
investment. The system was designed
to have on-board payment (through the
front door only) rather than enclosed
stations with ticket barriers, such as
the ones used in Bogot and Curitiba.
Simple bus shelters were built instead,
with pedestrian signals to tell passengers
where to wait and queue.
The second key decision was to
implement the system in a single phase,
without a transition period between old
and new schemes. Unlike the progressive
approach in Bogot and Curitiba, the
Santiago system was planned to be fully
operational on day one.
The challenge of this approach was not
only having the bus and metro system
operating and integrated from the
beginning, but also providing the correct
information to passengers so that they
could take full advantage of the system
intuitively and without delays. It was an
extremely aggressive approach with no
room for errors.

The planned system had some

differences when compared with its
precursors, but there were two key
decisions that created challenges to the
implementation of the system.

Transantiago was launched in Feb 2007

and become a nightmare for commuters.
The lack of dedicated infrastructure led to
major problems. As bus lanes were not
fully segregated general traffic affected
the operating speed of the buses, making
the fleet insufficient to cover the required
frequencies.

First, there were no plans for major

infrastructure improvements. No fully
segregated lanes were contemplated as
part of the project.

Boarding and alighting times were also

badly affected by passengers having to
validate tickets when boarding, adding an
additional source of delay.

only BRT can offer a large

mass transit system to cope
with spiraling demand and
congestion

The system required more interchanges

to complete typical journeys, exacerbated
by long queues for buses and gross
overcrowding of the metro.
Everything that could go wrong did
and the choice of a full implementation
from the beginning did not allow time
for changes or quick improvements.
The smartcards did not work well, travel
information was poor and buses and
metro were well over capacity. Chaos
and frustrated passengers were the main
symptoms of the system.
Transantiago ended up being a hard
lesson in how not to plan and implement
a mass transport system.
India - the next generation
BRT is now starting to play a key role
in keeping Indian cities moving. Broad
thoroughfares in the newer parts of cities,
are enabling segregated laned BRTs to
be built (e.g. Pune, Delhi, Ahmedabad
and Jaipur), and in places where
dedicating roadspace is difficult, BRT is
being deployed in mixed traffic conditions
(e.g. Mumbai and Indore) to improve the
customer experience of public transport
through high capacity vehicles.
Elsewhere in cities such as Rajkot and
Surat BRTs are under construction. The
combination of moderate capital cost
combined with the lack of need to import
technology is giving BRT an affordability
edge over metro systems.
Whilst Punes system was the first
notional BRT in India, it is in Ahmedabad
(utilising semi low floor fleet) and Delhi

(the second city in India to install BRT)

that the BRT concept has been taken the
furthest.
Ahmedabad claims to be the first true
BRT system, built in 2009. It consists of
12km of busways through the central/
median reservation, and offers split
flyovers in congested areas as well
as dedicated fleet with wide doors to
facilitate rapid boarding and maintain
an even service headway. The system
also includes electronic fare collection,
centralised control and user information
systems. The plan is to eventually expand
the system to cover 88km of BRT at an
infrastructure cost of US$1.87m per km.
In Delhi the BRT forms part of a
network of integrated modes including
metro, monorail and light rail. BRT was
introduced for the Commonwealth Games
in 2010. Buses are not grade seperated
but have dedicated lanes and stations.
A total of 26 BRT corridors are planned
for Delhi, covering a total length of 310
km by the year 2020. The first corridor to
be built was 14 km long from Ambedkar
Nagar to Delhi Gate, and the patronage is
extremely high due to it serving some of
South Delhis key economic hubs.
The BRT has improved the performance
of other modes in Delhi in its corridors
with bus and cycle journey times seeing
sizeable improvement. Initial surveys
indicate that around 60% of Delhi
residents having access to the BRT use
it for work trips with cleanliness and
reliability being the key attributes admired
most.

2011 and beyond

After being praised and imitated around
the world for 10 years, TransMilenio
seems to be moving backwards. The
buses are overcrowded, attracting
muggers and pickpockets. Perception
of the system is falling and there is no
imminent response from the government
to solve the problems. The mobility
agenda for the Colombian capital is now
focused on new BRT lanes, a metro and
full integration with other public buses.
In Transantiago the picture is completely
the opposite. After four years of
operations all flaws and glitches
have been fixed. Sound investment
in infrastructure has been made to
facilitate the operation of the buses, the
technology to control the fleet is now
implemented and pre-boarding pay zones
have been created. The system is far
from perfect but at least is now moving in
the right direction.
Elsewhere the experiences in Curitiba,
Bogot and Santiago have inspired
similar solutions in other cities of the
world: Metrobus (Mexico City), Metrobus
(Istanbul) and Rea Vaya (Johannesburg).
India is also now adopting BRT in many
of its cities.
Finally, while the introduction of the
Cambridge St Ives BRT was two
years late due to technical issues with
the segregated track, early signs are
encouraging and augur well for future
projects such as Luton- Dunstable and
BRT North (Sheffield Meadowhall
Rotherham) in the UK.

Please contact the authors: Alejandro Obregon ([email protected]) and

David Ashmore ([email protected]).
Some pictures in this Focus have been provided by Transmilenio S.A.
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