Is this "Train Track" for Buses the Solution for beating congestion? | Leeds Guided Busway 

Here's another attempt at a solution for beating congestion, with an system of elevated roads instead: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-_upR3kjG6Z0.html

If I had a nickel for every time someone accidentally re invented the train, I’d be able to buy my own steam locomotive

The way I see it, guided busways in the UK should be a stop-gap to boost the popularity of public transport but ultimately they should be converted to trams wherever possible, expecially if they are already using the right of way left after the Beeching Axe (e.g. Leigh).

That white concrete thing in the middle of the road at the start (0:21) is called a ‘trig point’, but their actual name are triangulation pillars. They basically were placed on top of hills and embankments and they mounted a ‘theodolite’ on top of it and were often accompanied by a ‘flush bracket’. Basically a metal bracket with a unique code with ‘OSBM’ written on it. (Ordnance Survey Benchmark). They used them to measure the distance of heights all the around the UK and IOM using trigonometry. So, this one is pretty lucky to survive given that it’s in the middle of a dual carriageway! But I’m glad it’s preserved and not destroyed.

Unlike Leeds, we have an actual tram network! A big one too! Four lines with a total length of 53.5 km/33 miles. The network has three main lines, and a smaller fourth one. The fourth one was created to connect the Pyongyang Metro station at Kim Il-sung University (Samhung) to the Kumsusan Palace of the Sun, the mausoleum of my father and grandpa. A Pyongyang Metro station was once at the palace’s site (Kwangmyong), but once it became a mausoleum in 1995, it became sacred ground and thus it was closed with a new tram line built. Most of the network uses Tatra trams made in the former Czechoslovakia but unlike the rest of the network, the tram that runs on this Kumsusan line uses a Swiss tram built in the late 40s that was retired from the Zurich network in 1994 where it was purchased by us the next year.

Interesting concept... however I can already see the downside of this guided busway - if a bus breaks down along the guideway, that entire stretch of guideway would be unusable and other buses would have to join in the congested roads. With a demarcated lane like in Singapore, other buses can easily bypass the broken down bus and return to the bus lane. And of course - the other downside is that buses would have to be retrofitted with guide wheels and that adds additional maintenance costs.

Like others mentioned, Adelaide has this as well. How did Adelaide get it? The greater Adelaide area experienced significant growth during and after WWII, and thus so did the amount of vehicles registered. By the mid-1970s, transportation had become a problem in the north-east suburbs. This led to a study that concluded that a light-rail would be the best option. However, there was opposition because people thought it would interfere with the well-designed layout of the city proper, and that light-rail vehicles would be too noisy. In search of a replacement for the light rail project, they examined the O-Bahn system in Essen in what was then West Germany by Daimler-Benz. The system was seen as far superior to previous proposals; it used less land, made less noise, was faster and cost less. In addition, its unique feature of a non-transfer service direct from suburban streets to the city center made it more attractive. Adelaide's track is 12 km/7.5 mi long and includes three interchanges at Klemzig, Paradise and Tea Tree Plaza. Interchanges allow buses to enter and exit the busway and to continue on suburban routes, avoiding the need for passengers to transfer to another bus to continue their journey.

Looks like the same system used in Cambridge, part of which is actually on an abandoned rail line. Much more sensible than letting the busses get snarled up in traffic jams! Might even encourage one or two people to use the bus and leave the car at home.

Bruh the thumbnail has almost the same energy as an SG❤BUS B9TL on Service 7

leeds really does anything to avoid building a tram

The driver has to be very perfect to drive simultaneously on the path 😮

the people have spoken, and the resounding answer is.... NO.

Very cool. Thanks! Had so much fun watching this! 👍👍👍

Dude that’s like a free lane for a bus! UK just took buses have priority to another level! Nice vid

Great concept

At 00:28 (on the guideway ) the bus drivers like I’m not in rush hour zooom😂❤

Wow! Never knew this existed 😮 great idea

I always wonder how buses drive on these without scratching the wheels on the curb. Now I know about the guide wheels.

Awesome solution🎉🎉🎉

Great idea

This is a great bus system We need this in Melbourne

Normal bus are already inefficient compared to rail, adding those guided wheels are gonna reduce the efficiency more. Might as well make trams instead...

In france we have a lot of reserves lines for buses, separated to the other lines. And it works well, no need to guide the bus

This is just a really expensive way to build a bus lane, and is fine until one breaks down and others can’t just drive around it!

Great video.

luton and dunstable have one aswell its rlly good tbf, most of the track section if 50 mph

They have the same system in and around Cambridge serving the Park & Ride Parks. So quick and easy.

we've got buses here in Adelaide Australia that have got the same wheels

AS a way to bypass regular traffic jams it is OK. For longer stretches a lightrail system is much more comfortable and has a better capacity too.

Very nicely put together video and very entertaining as well. Thanks for posting this.

Adelaide also has such busways too. However, main problem are the 4 idiots that drive onto the busway and have their oil pans demolished per year and causing delays. A good idea is also to fence it because people might inadvertently walk onto these busways, especially if drunk. Singapore should also have these, but underground to save space.

Well, it looks like a wonderful compromise. But it also looks to be a bumpy ride on this video. To me an electric lowfloor tramsystem is the better solution. I know: Leeds had a tram in the past, but it is never too late to review decisions from the past and make a new start: Nottingham, Birmingham, Croydon, Manchester and Sheffield are examples of such a reviewing. The oldfashioned trams has disappeared in the 50th / 60th in favor of buses and cars (which was seen as THE solution at the time), and now a modern system with lowfloor trams is in use. Succesfully...

The Volvo DDs (LeedsCity) in this video have a similar paint scheme to SG❤BUS and uses the same O-bahn technology like Adelaide in Australia.

There has been one in Cambridgeshire for many years, running into Cambridge from St. Ives

It's kind of like what Montreal and Paris (also that college in west virginia and LHR) have but it's only one car and the power is onboard.

This already exists in turkey its called “Metrobüs” It doesnt uses train tracks but it has its own road that no other car can enter

Way forward 👍

The irony though of virtually the entire video was that the traffic was freely flowing.

The best and low price solution! 👍

That is a vary good idea, Bus lane only.

Epic camera angles

I actually wrote in to oppose the Cambridgeshire one because I thought the trains should be back.

It's definitely an improvement over regular old bus in terms of speed. But I wouldn't want to be on it too long because of all the rattling.

Boy am I so jealous of this place

British technology in the 21st century 🎉🎉🎉. Simply brilliant!

So that's what those lanes are for! I've seen them before, but never seen a double decker on them, it always appeared empty, & i thought they were only used by police!

I notice, after several viewings of the video, that obeying traffic lights is optional. I have travelled on the Cambridge Busway, where the ride is a lot smoother than this, but it has still turned out to be a very expensive system, plagued with construction faults. It would have been cheaper to reinstate the train service over the abandoned line in the North of the city. As for Leeds, the city has my sympathy because the government action/inaction/dithering/incompetence etc. led to schemes for a tramway being dropped- this busway is a poor substitute, especially so seeing the junctions.

Hey, Aussie got one of those!

It is a good idea for something like that every where

I am from Adelaide, Australia, and we have the O-Bahn guided busway here. I imagine you’ve seen videos of this similar concept as well,

I really hope SG does this it really helps alot mu goodness

In germany they used that system in Essen around 1975 with bendy busses

They have been in Adelaide Australia for years now called the obahn

Adelaide in Australia has this for buses for 20 years we call it the o Bhan

i had a dream! do this but with articulated double deckers like the legendary Neoplan Jumbocruiser!

"It's smooth, it's quiet and an altogether delightful experience." Like riding a real train - assuming you are riding your trains while sitting on a washing machine in its spin cycle. (To be fair, I'm inferring that from the rattling of the bus' interior, which probably just means the buses are built like crap.) And it *is* cheaper than both train tracks and normal bus lanes.

Doesn't get stuck in traffic, and doesn't go where I need to go, and doesn't come anywhere near where I live. But great for densely populated cities - particularly the "metro areas" that are usually made up of dozens to scores of "smaller" cities that have effectively become one huge, densely populated city.

We have similar with the V1 & V2 in here in Manchester, just not in my local area

They had this system in Birmingham about 30 years ago and abandoned it.

Nice video and I like to see my favourite B9TL 37664

I was delivering around Leeds today and saw them bus tracks

Nice way to skip traffic jam in bus journey to get your destination faster than normal way to wait for traffic light to continue your journey

alot of bus stops along the guideway route not in the guideway are built with special kerbs to enable the guideway fitted buses to pull up close.

Have a 2 lane bus way in Luton Bedfordshire to dunstable along the former branch line

If there is separation, a conventional road would also work for places with lower budget. Plus it can allow the bus to go faster. Eventually the solution is to switch to trams.

We have one of these in west manchester too! helps make trips into the city centre much quicker. Even though a route via the main roads was about 20 miles shorter for me, it was still so much quicker to take a detour to the busway.

It's a busway but now the driver doesn't have to steer. I still prefer rail though, you can't move 1000+ people on a single bus!

Excellent Video!!!!

Edinburgh has had bus and taxi greenway lanes for decades, drivers are fined £60 if caught on a greenway lane camera or by police. The greenway are closed to cars between 7am and 9.30 am and 4pm - 6.30pm during peak traffic times. But are open on Sundays.

In Cambridge they're now going to spend more money to re-jig the southern section where people already on their way to/from the hospital get killed by these things. The section has been closed in one direction for some years now. The exact amount spent on legal wrangling with BAM Nuttall over the cracking northern section is not known but could be hundreds of millions. Anything that points out how successful it has been omits that they canned several bus routes forcing people onto the misguided busway instead and that helicoptering passengers would have been cheaper. The city centre is still clogged with buses and news from a few days ago says they're going to have speed limiters so any chance of being remotely as fast as the trains that used to run on the northern section, a Beeching victim, are gone.

Initially they were implemented as an alternative as a request to the then government for money to rebuild a tram system was refused. However, the government then reduced the amount asked for so Leeds Council built the bus lanes with the intention of putting tracks down when money was available. The money never appeared so Leeds have since altered their town centre etc, to be bus friendly.

They have had this system in Crawley for many decades

In South Africa you would find motorists and taxis on that bus lane

In Germany,Essen to Mülheim/Ruhr ,we have this kind of separate bus lane on the A40 sind 1970,its called „lane leaded“.Bus driver has nothing to do with the steering wheel,by small rolls the bus is leaded at each side.

Dunstable has one as well.

The tires seem to wear easily, but are they changed too frequently? I thought, but there is a small tire that follows the guide.

Better than my coutry!!

They have tracks for busses in Australia which work very well reduces congestion at peak times...

Interesting, does the tram have a driver or conductor? Is there a steering wheel or does it navigate purely on the guidance wheels?

We need TransJakarta BRT to be build like this, as bus lanes are often "utilised" by non-buses too.

I think the silver line in Boston does something similar.

公交车绕弯时，司机不用转动方向盘吗？摩擦引起的轮胎磨损会严重吗？

Looks and sounds like a very rough ride.

This is a similar idea to one of the factories I worked at. We had stacker trucks driving down aisles where the driver didn't have to steer. It was done with infrared sensors on the front, but then the trucks were prone to yawing. The answer was to fit sensors on the rear as well and the little computer could then give a comfortable ride, driver free.

Busways yes. Guided busways? Looks like a rough ride, especially at 5:08 . Brisbane, Australia has a very good dedicated busway network without wheel guides.

do u have plans to visit Runcorn’s busway someday?, not enough bus nut footage of it here…

You have to see the Essen Spurbus between the A40 and the answer there is yes.

Sypte did this in Doncaster in the 80s.

Functionally, Is this any different from the separated bus lane with physical barriers to prevent entering other vehicles?

*Laughs in Cantabrigian* Remember the time they couldn't even paint the letters on "buses only" the right way around?

West Midlands Travel trialed this system many years ago, after a few years they scrapped the idea.

Wouldn’t it be cheaper just to have the ‘track’ as a normal separate bus lane?

Interesting concept, but I don't think Singapore is gonna test out this concept anytime soon. Mainly because is space constraints in Singapore preventing a at-grade railway or tram line being built. What do you think was one of the reasons Singapore shut down the old KTM Tanjong Pagar/Woodlands railway back in 2011? And to add to that, all new MRT lines being built today are all underground to save on space.

This reminds me of a similar system I learned about in Adelaide, Australia.

it just needs to reinforce more rubber on the glass to lessen noise

For a sec I thought that weg2 is sg one 😅

we need more infrastructure like this

Cambridge has this too

Used to have one of these in Edinburgh. It was converted to the tram line

20 yrs behind...Edinburgh's Lothian buses do this....even got Trams now 😂