Interesting dedicated busways in Europe

[Santa Claus]

For busways in the Netherlands, just throw a dart at a map of the Netherlands; you’re likely to hit one.

Not yet mentioned is the busway southwest of Rotterdam, from Zwartevaal towards (but not all the way to) Spijkenisse Centrum metro station along the N128.

Regarding Utrecht: after passing through the Science Park / University Campus / Hospital along Heidelberglaan, the tramway terminates under a large P&R car park, so that it can serve the uni in one direction and and P&R commuters in the other, which reduces the need to carry warm air ‘in the other direction’ during rush hour.

 

[Mark L]

I’ve used the one in Lima, Peru (crowded but quick) and seen the one in Bogotá, Colombia (also looked busy). Neither were a patch on the genuine metro in Medellin (quick, smooth and busy).

Again, not Europe but there is a BRT in Cape Town with stretches of non-guided bus (but segregated by kerbs) lanes adjacent to the highway. It also features stops with high level offside boarding from island platforms.

 

[stadler]

Miami in Florida in the USA now has a very long dedicated busway that opened four months ago. The one and only proper busway that the USA has. It runs like a railway. It has level crossings with lights and barriers and they are the same exact lights and barriers found on the USA railways. All of the bus stops are fully enclosed stations with ticket barriers. It is very impressive. I am surprised they went to all the effort of building such a major railway style busway rather than just extending the metro line.

 

[Taunton]

Seattle, USA, has a lengthy tunnel under the city centre, until recently used by buses, which had a range of incarnations. Opened new about 1990 it also had tram tracks, but these were not used, only trolleybuses, of which Seattle has long had a substantial network, but no longer any trams. Pioneer hybrid buses then joined in, which ran on diesel outside the tunnel into the suburbs. After about 20 years the never-used tram tracks were dug up and replaced, something wrong with them, and new tram services were introduced for mixed running. Another 10 years and around 2020 the trolleybuses were taken out of it, the surface streets rewired for trolleybuses, and the joint operation ceased.

Downtown Seattle Transit Tunnel - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Los Angeles has a substantial dedicated busway in the San Fernando Valley, along a former rail line, with proper wayside stations, the crossing of the many surface streets is done with conventional priority traffic signals. It was originally going to be a heavy metro line, then downgraded to light rail, and then downgraded again to the busway

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[CarrotPie]

Helsinki, Finland, has a small amount of dedicated busway for trunk bus 560, including a 1.2 km 560-only tunnel.

Trunk bus 550 used to have several dedicated busway section around the Helsinki region, but these were converted into light rail line 15, which eventually replaced line 550 in 2023. The only bit that's left is the tunnel under Huopalahti station, which allows line 15 and bus line 52 to serve platforms directly under the train station.

 

[67thave]

Miami in Florida in the USA now has a very long dedicated busway that opened four months ago. The one and only proper busway that the USA has. It runs like a railway. It has level crossings with lights and barriers and they are the same exact lights and barriers found on the USA railways. All of the bus stops are fully enclosed stations with ticket barriers. It is very impressive. I am surprised they went to all the effort of building such a major railway style busway rather than just extending the metro line.

The busway in Miami is actually a few decades old, but it was dramatically upgraded in the past few years. Prior to the upgrades, the stops were more simple and there were no railway-style level crossings.

The United States does have other proper busways beyond the one in Miami. Pittsburgh in particular has an extensive network and the busway between Hartford and New Britain (in Connecticut) is probably more impressive than the one in Miami, especially considering the smaller scale of the Hartford metropolitan area.

 

[And]

Nantes has two Busway lines.

Adelaide has the O-Bahn. Sydney has bus lanes on the M2 motorway.

A bit of a stretch I know, but New Zealand's Monarch is King Charles. On that tenuous basis, Auckland has peak period bus lanes in the hard shoulder on part of its motorway network, and 2 dedicated (unguided) Busways, one of which continues into a bus lane on the motorway.