Shopping on line can be easy, simple and save you lots of money. It can also take a lot of your time, frustrate you, and result in unwanted purchases. Now the same can be said for regular high street shopping, but with the vast opportunity presented by the Internet it will pay you to spend a few minutes reading this and understanding how to better optimize your Guided Bus shopping experience:
1. Compare - without doubt the biggest advantage that the Guided Bus offers shoppers today is the ability to compare thousands of Guided Bus at a time. This is a great thing, but not necessarily all the time! Too much can be daunting at times so take advantage of the great comparison sites and where possible let them do the hard work for you.
2. Research - if it has been said it will be on the internet. Ignorance is no longer a justifiable reason for buying the wrong thing. Take the time to research in detail everything that you could possible want to know about
3. Testimonials - don't know anybody that has bought a Guided Bus? Wrong! If the Guided Bus is good the internet will let you know. Use the Internet as a friend and get testimonials before you buy.
4. Questions - Got a question about Guided Bus then search the Forums, FAQ's, Blogs etc. Don't be afraid to ask .....
5. Reputation - Never heard of the company selling Guided Bus? Don't worry, no reason why you should know every company in the world, but you know someone that does! Use the internet to find out what people are saying about Guided Bus and build up a picture of their reputation for sales, returns, customer service, delivery etc.
6. Returns - still worried that even after all of the above your Guided Bus wont be what you want? Check out the returns policy. There is so much competition now that someone, somewhere is bound to offer the terms that you are comfortable with.
7. Feedback - happy with your Guided Bus then let people know, after all you are depending on others people input in your buying decision, so why not give a little back.
8. Security - check for the yellow padlock on the Guided Bus site before you buy, and the s after http:/ /i.e. https:// = a secure site
9. Contact - got a question about Guided Bus, or want to leave a comment then check out the sites contact page. Reputable companies have them and respond.
10. Payment - ready to pay for your Guided Bus, then use your credit card or PayPal! Be aware of companies that don't accept them, there may be genuine reasons but given the huge amount of choice you have when buying online there is no reason at all not to buy via credit card or PayPal.
route in
Adelaide.
Guided buses are buses steered for part or all of their route by external means, usually on a Bus lane. This track, which often parallels existing
roads, excludes all other
traffic, permitting the maintenance of reliable
timetables on heavily used corridors even during
rush hours.
Guidance systems can be either physical, such as
Curb (road), or remote, such as optical or radio guidance.
On kerb-guided buses (often abbreviated to KGB) small guide wheels are attached to the bus, and these engage vertical kerbs on either side of the trackway. The bus is steered in the normal way away from the guideway. The start of the guideway is funnelled from a wide track to the normal width. The trackway allows for high-speed operation on a narrow guideway as well as precise positioning at boarding platforms, facilitating access for the elderly and disabled.
History
Only a few examples currently exist, but more are proposed in various countries. The longest guided busway in the world is the
O-Bahn Busway route in Adelaide, South Australia, which has been operating reasonably successfully since the mid 1980s.
The first guided busway in United Kingdom was in
Birmingham, branded as Tracline 65 and had a short 600 metre length as an experiment in 1984. It has since been removed.http://citytransport.info/Tracline65.htm
A number of guided busways currently operate in the
United Kingdom. They are at:
- Ipswich (Kesgrave) - opened in 1995
- Leeds (A61 road Scott Hall Road) - opened in 1995
- Leeds (A64 road York Road and A63 road Selby Road) - opened in 2001
- Bradford (A641 road Manchester Road) - opened in October 2001.
- Crawley Fastway (Southgate Avenue) - opened in August 2003.
- Crawley Fastway (London Road) - opened in December 2004.
- Edinburgh (Fastlink - Stenhouse to Broomhouse) - opened in December 2004.
Construction of the
Cambridgeshire Guided Busway in
Cambridgeshire, UK, began in January 2007 and the County Council says that the scheme will open in early 2009.
Cambridgeshire Guided Busway - information about the scheme (undated leaflet, accessed 2007-07-17), Cambridgeshire County Council The busway will use the route of the former Cambridge to St Ives, Cambridgeshire
railway line.
In
Mannheim, Germany from May 1992 to September 2005 a guided busway shared the tram alignment for a few hundred metres, which allowed buses to avoid a congested stretch of road in a location where there was no space for an extra traffic lane. It was discontinued as the majority of buses fitted with guide wheels were withdrawn for age reasons. There are no plans to convert newer buses.
Yutorito Line in
Nagoya, Aichi,
Japan, opened in March 2001, and is the only guided bus line in the country.
Rubber-tyred "trams"
s.A further development of the guided bus is the "tramway on tyres", a rubber-tyred vehicle guided by a fixed rail in the ground, which draws current from overhead electric wires like a conventional tram.
Two incompatible systems exist, the
Bombardier Guided Light Transit designed by
Bombardier Transportation, and the
Translohr system. There are no
guide bars on the sides but there is a central
guidance rail that, in the case of Translohr, is a special rail that is grasped by a pair of metal guide wheels set at 45° to the road and at 90° to each other. In the Bombardier system a single
double flanged wheel between the
rubber tires follows the guidance
Rail profile. This is why the two systems are not compatible, however the
shape of the
Groove (engineering) of the double-flanged Bombardier guide wheel could possibly be adapted to the shape of the top of the Translohr guidance rail. In both cases the weight of the vehicle is borne by rubber tyres on
bogies to which the guide wheels are attached. Power is supplied by overhead lines, or by rechargeable
battery (electricity) in areas where there are no overhead wires.
The
Bombardier Guided Light Transit system has been adopted in
Nancy and Caen, France, while the
Translohr system is in use in Clermont-Ferrand, France, and
Tianjin, China, and is under construction in Padua,
L'Aquila, and the mainland Mestre district of Venice in
Italy. The Translohr system is intended for guidance-only operation, while the Bombardier system can be driven as a normal bus as requirements dictate, such as journeys to the depot. The Bombardier vehicles are legally considered buses, and must bear bus-like rear-view mirrors,
Automotive lighting and vehicle registration plates. Unlike trams, GLT vehicles have a steering wheel, though it is not used when following the guidance rail. Because the Translohr "tram" cannot move without guidance it will probably not be classified as a
bus. Hence the Translohr vehicles that on test runs on the Clermont-Ferrand network are not equipped with
Vehicle registration plates.
rubber-tyred "tram" for the future system in
Padua, ItalyThese systems offer a much more tram-like experience than a regular guided bus, and offer some advantages over trams, such as a potentially smaller turning radius, the ability to climb steeper Grade (slope) (up to 13%), and quieter running around corners. The
infrastructure installation can be less complicated than the installation of a complete tram line in an existing street. These systems have been likened to the tram equivalent of rubber-tired metros, and they are also correspondingly less efficient than steel-wheeled light rail vehicles. On the negative side, there have been significant technical difficulties in
Nancy since the system opened with "derailments", where the guidance system becomes detached from the central guide rail.{{cite news] systems.
Other experimental bus systems have non-physical guidance systems, such as sensors or magnets buried in the roadway.http://www.garden.force9.co.uk/Buses03.htm In 2004,
Stagecoach Group signed a deal with Siemens AG to develop an optical guidance system for use in the UK.{{cite news|url=http://www.stagecoachgroup.com/scg/media/press/pr2004/2004-12-08a/|publisher=Stagecoach Group|title=Stagecoach signs deal with Siemens to develop new bus optical guidance system|date=December 8, 2004-->
Gallery
Image:MB_O_405_N_MVV274_guide_wheel_detail.jpeg|The guide wheel of a guided bus in
Mannheim, GermanyImage:Fastway.JPG] alignment for a short length in Mannheim
See also
References
External links
- Guided bus information and pictures
- Adelaide O-Bahn
- First Group guided busways
- Translohr official site
- Guided Light Transit official web site
- Cambridgeshire County Council's Guided Busway project
- "An Update on Curb Guided Bus Technology and Deployment Trends", Journal of Public transport 2006 BRT Special Edition (PDF 964Kb)
- University of Minnesota's ITS Institute "BRT Technologies: Assisting Drivers Operating Buses on Road Shoulders"
- University of Berkley PATH Magnetic Guidance System - used on Snowploughs with trials including Transit Bus running and docking
route in
Adelaide.
Guided buses are
buses steered for part or all of their route by external means, usually on a
Bus lane. This track, which often parallels existing
roads, excludes all other
traffic, permitting the maintenance of reliable timetables on heavily used corridors even during rush hours.
Guidance systems can be either physical, such as
Curb (road), or remote, such as optical or radio guidance.
On kerb-guided buses (often abbreviated to KGB) small guide wheels are attached to the bus, and these engage vertical kerbs on either side of the trackway. The bus is steered in the normal way away from the guideway. The start of the guideway is funnelled from a wide track to the normal width. The trackway allows for high-speed operation on a narrow guideway as well as precise positioning at boarding platforms, facilitating access for the elderly and disabled.
History
Only a few examples currently exist, but more are proposed in various countries. The longest guided busway in the world is the
O-Bahn Busway route in Adelaide,
South Australia, which has been operating reasonably successfully since the mid 1980s.
The first guided busway in United Kingdom was in
Birmingham, branded as Tracline 65 and had a short 600 metre length as an experiment in 1984. It has since been removed.http://citytransport.info/Tracline65.htm
A number of guided busways currently operate in the
United Kingdom. They are at:
- Ipswich (Kesgrave) - opened in 1995
- Leeds (A61 road Scott Hall Road) - opened in 1995
- Leeds (A64 road York Road and A63 road Selby Road) - opened in 2001
- Bradford (A641 road Manchester Road) - opened in October 2001.
- Crawley Fastway (Southgate Avenue) - opened in August 2003.
- Crawley Fastway (London Road) - opened in December 2004.
- Edinburgh (Fastlink - Stenhouse to Broomhouse) - opened in December 2004.
Construction of the
Cambridgeshire Guided Busway in Cambridgeshire,
UK, began in January 2007 and the County Council says that the scheme will open in early 2009.
Cambridgeshire Guided Busway - information about the scheme (undated leaflet, accessed 2007-07-17), Cambridgeshire County Council The busway will use the route of the former
Cambridge to St Ives, Cambridgeshire railway line.
In
Mannheim, Germany from May 1992 to September 2005 a guided busway shared the tram alignment for a few hundred metres, which allowed buses to avoid a congested stretch of road in a location where there was no space for an extra traffic lane. It was discontinued as the majority of buses fitted with guide wheels were withdrawn for age reasons. There are no plans to convert newer buses.
Yutorito Line in
Nagoya, Aichi,
Japan, opened in March 2001, and is the only guided bus line in the country.
Rubber-tyred "trams"
s.A further development of the guided bus is the "tramway on tyres", a rubber-tyred vehicle guided by a fixed rail in the ground, which draws current from overhead electric wires like a conventional tram.
Two incompatible systems exist, the
Bombardier Guided Light Transit designed by Bombardier Transportation, and the
Translohr system. There are no
guide bars on the sides but there is a central
guidance rail that, in the case of Translohr, is a special rail that is grasped by a pair of metal guide wheels set at 45° to the road and at 90° to each other. In the Bombardier system a single
double flanged wheel between the rubber
tires follows the guidance
Rail profile. This is why the two systems are not compatible, however the
shape of the Groove (engineering) of the double-flanged Bombardier guide wheel could possibly be adapted to the shape of the top of the Translohr guidance rail. In both cases the weight of the vehicle is borne by rubber tyres on
bogies to which the guide wheels are attached. Power is supplied by overhead lines, or by rechargeable
battery (electricity) in areas where there are no overhead wires.
The Bombardier Guided Light Transit system has been adopted in Nancy and Caen, France, while the Translohr system is in use in
Clermont-Ferrand, France, and
Tianjin,
China, and is under construction in
Padua,
L'Aquila, and the mainland Mestre district of
Venice in Italy. The Translohr system is intended for guidance-only operation, while the Bombardier system can be driven as a normal bus as requirements dictate, such as journeys to the depot. The Bombardier vehicles are legally considered buses, and must bear bus-like rear-view mirrors,
Automotive lighting and
vehicle registration plates. Unlike trams, GLT vehicles have a
steering wheel, though it is not used when following the guidance rail. Because the Translohr "tram" cannot move without guidance it will probably not be classified as a
bus. Hence the Translohr
vehicles that on test runs on the Clermont-Ferrand network are not equipped with
Vehicle registration plates.
rubber-tyred "tram" for the future system in Padua, ItalyThese systems offer a much more tram-like experience than a regular guided bus, and offer some advantages over trams, such as a potentially smaller turning
radius, the ability to climb steeper Grade (slope) (up to 13%), and quieter running around corners. The infrastructure installation can be less complicated than the installation of a complete tram line in an existing street. These systems have been likened to the tram equivalent of rubber-tired metros, and they are also correspondingly less efficient than steel-wheeled light rail vehicles. On the negative side, there have been significant technical difficulties in
Nancy since the system opened with "derailments", where the guidance system becomes detached from the central guide rail.{{cite news] systems.
Other experimental bus systems have non-physical guidance systems, such as sensors or magnets buried in the roadway.http://www.garden.force9.co.uk/Buses03.htm In 2004,
Stagecoach Group signed a deal with
Siemens AG to develop an optical guidance system for use in the UK.{{cite news|url=http://www.stagecoachgroup.com/scg/media/press/pr2004/2004-12-08a/|publisher=Stagecoach Group|title=Stagecoach signs deal with Siemens to develop new bus optical guidance system|date=December 8, 2004-->
Gallery
Image:MB_O_405_N_MVV274_guide_wheel_detail.jpeg|The guide wheel of a guided bus in Mannheim, GermanyImage:Fastway.JPG] alignment for a short length in Mannheim
See also
References
External links
- Guided bus information and pictures
- Adelaide O-Bahn
- First Group guided busways
- Translohr official site
- Guided Light Transit official web site
- Cambridgeshire County Council's Guided Busway project
- "An Update on Curb Guided Bus Technology and Deployment Trends", Journal of Public transport 2006 BRT Special Edition (PDF 964Kb)
- University of Minnesota's ITS Institute "BRT Technologies: Assisting Drivers Operating Buses on Road Shoulders"
- University of Berkley PATH Magnetic Guidance System - used on Snowploughs with trials including Transit Bus running and docking
Guided Busway home page
Guided Busway connecting page ... The County Council is in the process of building the longest guided busway in the world.
Guided bus
The SUPER BUSWAY strategy uses guideways to provide a more effective means for buses to by-pass these traffic queues.
Guided bus vehicles to run on chip fat
BUSES that run on fuel made from recycled chip oil are being bought for Cambridgeshire's guided bus system. Operator Stagecoach has ordered 20 of the high-tech green vehicles ...
Guided bus champion joins transport commission
Seen your photo in the paper or on this website? Now you can order your own copy via our new photo ordering site, myphotos24. You can order your photo as a digital image, as a ...
BBC News Player - Guided bus trial run
Trials of the world's longest guided busway have started in Cambridgeshire, after years of planning and development.
BBC - Cambridgeshire - Features - Cambridgeshire's Guided ...
The Guided Bus has been well-documented since council bosses first started talking about it over a decade ago. Plans have been drawn, money has been pledged, the public has been ...
Guided Bus
Is Public Transport Policy off the rails? The Cambridgeshire Guided Busway being built on the track bed of the old Cambridge - St Ives railway has cemented Cambridgeshire County ...
Guided bus - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Guided buses are buses steered for part or all of their route by external means, usually on a dedicated track. This track, which often parallels existing roads, excludes all other ...
Guided bus - Wikimedia Commons
A view (in summer 2006) looking along the busway after the busway had been widened for standard width buses (When it first opened it used narrower buses 2.4m wide).
Guided bus N/L
Wyton Fen Drayton Fenstanton Hemingfords Girton Milton Cottenham Bar Hill Rampton Houghton Huntingdon Hinchinbrooke Hospital Station St Ives Over Willingham Longstanton Oakington ...
