Busway/Guided Busway advice

[markymark2000]

I believe there is a sort of busway around Redditch - does anyone have more information about this?

Diamond 57 and 58 are the Busway circulars.

 

[johncrossley]

I believe there is a sort of busway around Redditch - does anyone have more information about this?

In case you can't find it, it is between here

Google Maps

Find local businesses, view maps and get driving directions in Google Maps.

goo.gl

and

Google Maps

Find local businesses, view maps and get driving directions in Google Maps.

goo.gl

A lot of the route was surveyed by Google Street View. Unless they did this by bike, or got special permission, it seems they drove through the bus lane.

 

[zero]

Thanks both.

 

[Mikey C]

It's essentially a concrete channel that the bus runs along. There are guide wheels attached to the front axle that run along the sides for the channel, negating the need for the driver to steer.

You'll be able to see it in operation if you search YouTube for "guided busway" - I don't have a specific video to show you, but there are bound to be a few there.

And as a result they can go at quite impressive speeds for buses. I was a sceptic, but having had to use the Luton-Dunstable one a few times last year was won over.

 

[zero]

Bradford (Manchester Road) is just a couple of very short sections on the street used by the First Bus routes 363 645 681 682 686 687 688 X63 services. All the other routes run by Arriva Bus and First Bus and TLC Travel along these roads do not use the guided busway.

Leeds (King Lane and Scott Hall Road) is just a couple of very short sections on the street used by the First Bus routes 7 7A 7S services. All the other routes run by First Bus along these roads do not use the guided busway.

I have now done these two and I am confused about why they are guided. They presumably have sensors to change traffic lights thus allowing buses to overtake cars in a queue, and to cross multiple lanes of a carriageway, but this could also be achieved with a normal (segregated) bus lane, so what was the purpose of making them guided?

In Leeds, in order to ride all the guided sections, you can use either 7 or 7A from Leeds, but only 7A towards Leeds.

In Bradford, the X63 buses I saw did not use the guided sections, though they are fitted with the guide wheels. I travelled on 686 and 687 and I am also confused about why, in the direction of Bradford to Fagley this route is numbered (mainly) 687 but in the direction of Fagley to Bradford it is numbered only 686?

 

[johncrossley]

I have now done these two and I am confused about why they are guided. They presumably have sensors to change traffic lights thus allowing buses to overtake cars in a queue, and to cross multiple lanes of a carriageway, but this could also be achieved with a normal (segregated) bus lane, so what was the purpose of making them guided?

In Leeds, in order to ride all the guided sections, you can use either 7 or 7A from Leeds, but only 7A towards Leeds.

In Bradford, the X63 buses I saw did not use the guided sections, though they are fitted with the guide wheels. I travelled on 686 and 687 and I am also confused about why, in the direction of Bradford to Fagley this route is numbered (mainly) 687 but in the direction of Fagley to Bradford it is numbered only 686?

During the heyday of guided busway construction, the main arguments were lack of space for a normal bus lane and enforcement. But that was before camera enforcement became an option.

 

[Tetchytyke]

so what was the purpose of making them guided?

The theory was to make them stand out compared to a normal bus lane- a completely segregated lane with proper bus stops and level boarding. Whether it worked is mostly subjective.

Of course the one really big benefit of a guided busway is it can't be ripped out so easily on the whim of a mayor (looking at you, Joe Anderson).

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 17 Feb 2023 ==

I travelled on 686 and 687 and I am also confused about why, in the direction of Bradford to Fagley this route is numbered (mainly) 687 but in the direction of Fagley to Bradford it is numbered only 686?

It's to do with the way the two routes interwork and operate down Manchester Road to Wyke. From Fagley the buses go to Brighouse, but to Fagley the buses originate at Scholes.

There's a history of this with the Scholes and Brighouse services, it used to be the same when they were joined with the Bradford-Bingley and Bradford-Baildon routes.

 

[markymark2000]

The theory was to make them stand out compared to a normal bus lane- a completely segregated lane with proper bus stops and level boarding. Whether it worked is mostly subjective.

I believe that they take up less space and buses can go around some tighter corners with them.

My personal preference is for a normal busway such as Runcorn and Redditch as they are cheaper. Especially when you look at Ipswich for example, the poxy little thing isn't worth the cost to the bus operators to have the guidewheels and train drivers on using the busway all for 100 metres. Cambridge is a good example but then the section near Cambridge North Station needlessly has the guided bit meaning that Citi 2 can't use the busway and has to instead incur additional delays. The down sides of the guided busway are highlighted most in Cambridge. If that was a normal busway, with all their engineering works, buses would give/take but instead as it's guided, buses have to completely miss out an area and divert, sometimes quite a way, simply because the busway is having work done.

 

[zero]

All good points above - but I've now done the Bristol one which is quite new, and it makes no sense to me..

It's a segregated carriageway so no possibility of cars veering into the bus lane. However the guided parts don't begin until quite some distance from both ends, so cars are not physically blocked from entering / if car drivers ignore the signs, the road doesn't look different.

The majority of the route is actually not guided, and the guided parts are straight (I assume the curves are too sharp to make them guided), so the drivers still have to do all the manual steering and don't really have much "hands off" time.

Also in Bristol the drivers pretty much slow to a stop each time they enter the guideway, which doesn't happen in Cambridge, Manchester or Yorkshire where drivers enter the guideway at higher speeds and you barely notice if you aren't paying attention. Maybe Bristol drivers are less experienced, they didn't have very good "aim" even though they slowed right down, so sometimes there were big sideways jolts.


I'm not going to bother with Ipswich, sounds like a waste of time. Next is Luton and I have a question - it seems that at Dunstable route A may turn into route Z after going round the ASDA, is that right?

 

[stuu]

All good points above - but I've now done the Bristol one which is quite new, and it makes no sense to me..

It's a segregated carriageway so no possibility of cars veering into the bus lane. However the guided parts don't begin until quite some distance from both ends, so cars are not physically blocked from entering / if car drivers ignore the signs, the road doesn't look different.

The majority of the route is actually not guided, and the guided parts are straight (I assume the curves are too sharp to make them guided), so the drivers still have to do all the manual steering and don't really have much "hands off" time.

The guidance in Bristol was insisted upon by the DfT/Treasury, to avoid it being a road project IIRC, or some nonsense like that. It is entirely pointless