A rail replacement bus service uses buses to replace a passenger train service on a temporary or permanent basis. The train service that is replaced may be of any type such as light rail, tram, streetcar, commuter rail, regional rail or heavy rail, intercity passenger service. The rail service may be replaced if the line is closed because of rail maintenance, a breakdown of a train, a rail accident or a strike action or to simply provide additional capacity or if the rail service is deemed not economically viable.
Terms for a rail replacement bus service include bustitution (a portmanteau of the words "bus" and "substitution", or bustitute) [1] and bus bridge. [2] Substitution of rail services by buses can be unpopular and subject to criticism and so the term bustitution is often used pejoratively. [3] [4]
In Australia, a permanent or temporary rail replacement service change is often referred to as bustitution. [5]
In November 1941, the Western Australian Government Railways introduced its first rail replacement service, which operated a service from Perth to Kojonup via Boddington. [6] By 1949, there were 28 buses, [7] and by 1959, there were more than 50. [8]
The Sydney Metro Northwest line used human-driven single-deck buses late at night from Wednesdays to Sundays and operated a red Metro bus-like service with a frequency of approximately every 10 minutes until November 2019. That measure was in place since the line was deemed "ready" 10 months ahead of schedule. [9]
On the Queensland Rail network, to relieve congestion on the single track Sunshine Coast line, the rail service is supplemented by a bus service operated by Kangaroo Bus Lines on weekdays between Caboolture and Nambour as route 649. [10] NSW TrainLink, Transwa and V/Line all introduced extensive networks in New South Wales, Western Australia and Victoria in the 1970s and the 1980s that replaced regional trains.
Via Rail, the operator of the national passenger rail network, uses the term "bustitution" to refer to rail replacement with buses. [1]
After the train collision on Changping line, Beijing Subway between Xi'erqi station and Life Science Park station on 14 December 2023, train services between Zhuxinzhuang and Xi'erqi were temporarily suspended on the following day. Beijing Public Transport provided free shuttle bus services between Zhuxinzhuang and Xi'erqi. [11]
Substitute bus transport (Czech : náhradní autobusová doprava) is governed by the Road Traffic Act (111/1994 Coll.), which allows the operator of a national, regional, tram, trolleybus or special line to operate substitute transport for up to 90 days in the case of interrupted or temporarily-restricted traffic on the line without the requirement to apply for a bus line license and have approval of the line's schedule. The law also mandates vehicles used for substitute transport to be marked as such.
In municipal public transport, substitute transport often takes on the number of the line that it replaces, prefixed by the letter X, and the original line is detoured. In cities with trolleybus systems, rail replacement buses also occasionally used for substitute transport and is then called substitute trolleybus transport (Czech : náhradní trolejbusová doprava).
As in the United Kingdom, buses have replaced rail services on closed lines. The most recent example can be found in County Wexford. where upon the suspension of rail services between Rosslare Europort and Waterford in 2010, Bus Éireann route 370 was introduced. However, the bus takes considerably longer than the train journey and fails to serve Waterford railway station. [12]
Busses have replaced rail in Japan when rail service must be suspended because of disaster, accident, economics, or engineering works. Notably, in some cases. those rail lines are closed permanently, and some of the former rail rights-of-way are converted into bus rights-of-way to provide grade-separated bus rapid transit service. [13]
When train services operated by Transdev in Auckland train services are sometimes replaced by a bus, the resulting service is called Rail Bus. [14] Historically, New Zealand Railways Road Services replaced many train routes with buses.[ citation needed ]
While the reconstruction of Slussen, the western terminal of Saltsjöbanan, is in progress, trains on line 25 run only to Henriksdal, one station short of Slussen, with the segment between Slussen and Henriksdal served by a replacement bus 25B that is timed to match the train times at Henriksdal.
Sometimes, buses can be seen running on line 7, the Spårväg City tram line, even when trams are running normally.
In the night after 01:00, there is no service on the Stockholm Metro and the commuter rail, and night buses run along the line instead.
During the British Railways Board's railway rationalisation in the 1960s, known as the Beeching cuts, bus substitution was an official policy for replacing train services on closed lines. The policy was largely unsuccessful, however, as the bus services were usually far slower than the train services that they replaced, and many passengers gave up on public transport altogether. [15] A report published in 2018 identified successful, and surviving, examples of this policy as the present X1 route operated by First Eastern Counties between Norwich and Peterborough, [16] and the Brighton & Hove Regency Route between Brighton and Tunbridge Wells, which partly replaces a route closed by Beeching. [17]
Rail replacement bus services have been used to operate parliamentary train services.
Rail-replacement bus services occurred on a large scale after the dismantling of the street railway systems of many cities in North America in the mid-20th century. [29] [30] Replacement of existing rail services with buses after World War II is one of the largest reasons that so few US cities have rapid transit systems.
The temporary substitution of buses for trains may be done with Amtrak's Amtrak Thruway service. [31]
The G Line (formerly the Orange Line) of the Los Angeles Metro runs along a paved closed course on the easement from the original Southern Pacific Railroad Burbank line, which was later used by the Pacific Electric Railway. It may eventually be converted back to light rail with Measure M funding, but that is not currently scheduled to happen until around 2050.
An incident occurred in Singapore on 7 July 2015 after a mass shutdown on the North–South and East–West lines after a power system failure. The operator SMRT and the rival SBS Transit did not activate bus bridging but made all buses free islandwide because of the sheer scale of the disruptions. [32] [33] The Land Transport Authority made travel free available for any bus services passing MRT stations that were affected during the train disruptions, and during a massive disruption affecting at least two lines, bus travel islandwide was made free. [33]
Rail-replacement bus services are common among urban rail transit systems, mainly because of unexpected service disruptions. For example, one of the effects of Hurricane Sandy in New York was that the New York City Subway required replacement bus service for several subway routes. [34] As the subway runs 24/7/365, replacement bus service is also provided when subway lines were closed for regularly-scheduled maintenance and so interruptions in subway service require replacement bus service, even during off-peak hours.[ citation needed ]
Planning rail-replacement services in a high-patronage environment, such as a high-capacity rapid transit network, requires efficient use and management of time and resources to prevent major travel disruptions. Thats was exemplified by a July 2015 shutdown on the Toronto subway during rush hour from a communication system breakdown in which the Toronto Transit Commission opted not to use replacement buses, as "it wasn't possible to replace the entire subway's capacity with buses". [35]
Light rail transit (LRT) is a form of passenger urban rail transit characterized by a combination of tram and rapid transit features. While its rolling stock is similar to that of a traditional tram, it operates at a higher capacity and speed and often on an exclusive right-of-way. In many cities, light rail transit systems more closely resemble, and are therefore indistinguishable from, traditional underground or at-grade subways and heavy-rail metros.
The Pacific Electric Railway Company, nicknamed the Red Cars, was a privately owned mass transit system in Southern California consisting of electrically powered streetcars, interurban cars, and buses and was the largest electric railway system in the world in the 1920s. Organized around the city centers of Los Angeles and San Bernardino, it connected cities in Los Angeles County, Orange County, San Bernardino County and Riverside County.
The Newark Light Rail (NLR) is a light rail system serving Newark, New Jersey, and surrounding areas, owned by New Jersey Transit and operated by its bus operations division. The service consists of two segments, the original Newark City Subway (NCS), and the extension to Broad Street station. The City Subway opened on May 16, 1935, while the combined Newark Light Rail service was officially inaugurated on July 17, 2006.
The Stockholm Metro is a rapid transit system in Stockholm, Sweden. The first line opened in 1950 as the first metro line in the Nordic countries, and today the system has 100 stations in use, of which 47 are underground and 53 above ground. There are three coloured lines, as shown on the tube maps, which form seven numbered routes with different termini. Routes numbered 17, 18 and 19, 13 and 14 and 10 and 11 all go through the centre of the city, resulting in a very centralized system. All three lines and seven routes interchange at T-Centralen station. Apart from this, there are three other interchange between lines, at Fridhemsplan, Slussen and Gamla stan stations.
The L Taraval is a hybrid light rail/streetcar line of the Muni Metro system in San Francisco, California, mainly serving the Parkside District. Since 2021, the line has been suspended and replaced by buses until the end of 2024 for an improvement project along Taraval Street.
The K Ingleside is a hybrid light rail/streetcar line of the Muni Metro system in San Francisco, California. It mainly serves the West Portal and Ingleside neighborhoods. The line opened on February 3, 1918, and was the first line to use the Twin Peaks Tunnel.
The J Church is a hybrid light rail/streetcar line of the Muni Metro system in San Francisco, California. The line runs between Embarcadero station and Balboa Park station through Noe Valley. Opened on August 11, 1917, it is the oldest and has the lowest ridership of all of the Muni Metro lines.
The Société de transport de Montréal is a public transport agency that operates transit bus and rapid transit services in the urban agglomeration of Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Established in 1861 as the "Montreal City Passenger Railway Company", it has grown to comprise four subway lines with a total of 68 stations, as well as 212 bus routes and 23 night routes. The STM was created in 2002 to replace the Société de transport de la communauté urbaine de Montréal. The STM operates the most heavily used urban mass transit system in Canada, and one of the most heavily used rapid transit systems in North America. As of 2019, the average daily ridership is 2,297,600 passengers: 977,400 by bus, 1,306,500 by rapid transit and 13,700 by paratransit service.
Various terms are used for passenger railway lines and equipment; the usage of these terms differs substantially between areas:
Public transport in Istanbul comprises a bus network, various rail systems, funiculars, and maritime services to serve the more than 15 million inhabitants of the city spread over an area of 5,712 km2.
An airport rail link is a service providing passenger rail transport from an airport to a nearby city by mainline or commuter trains, rapid transit, people mover, or light rail. Direct links operate straight to the airport terminal, while other systems require an intermediate use of people mover or shuttle bus.
Saltsjöbanan is an electrified suburban rail system between Stockholm and Saltsjöbaden in Nacka, Sweden. It is 18.5 kilometres (11.5 mi) in length and has eighteen stations in use. An average of 17,200 boardings are made on an ordinary workday (2019). The line is mostly single-track, and is isolated from Sweden's national railway network, although both are built to compatible 1,435 mmstandard gauge. The Storstockholms Lokaltrafik (SL) classifies it as "light rail" in its maps.
The Baltimore Metro SubwayLink is a rapid transit line serving Baltimore, Maryland, and its northwestern suburbs, operated by the Maryland Transit Administration. The segment in Downtown Baltimore is underground, while most of the line outside the central city is elevated or at surface grade. In 2023, the line had a ridership of 1,988,300, or about 7,953 per weekday as of the fourth quarter of 2023.
Light rail is a commonly used mode of public transit in North America. The term light rail was coined in 1972 by the Urban Mass Transportation Administration to describe new streetcar transformations which were taking place in Europe and the United States. The Germans used the term Stadtbahn, which is the predecessor to North American light rail, to describe the concept, and many in UMTA wanted to adopt the direct translation, which is city rail. However, in its reports, UMTA finally adopted the term light rail instead.
Although tram systems date to the late 19th and early 20th centuries, many old systems were closed during the mid-20th century because of the advent of automobile travel. This was especially the case in North America, but postwar reductions and shutdowns also occurred on British, French and other Western European urban rail networks. However, traditional tramway systems survived, and eventually even began to thrive from the late 20th century onward, some eventually operating as much as when they were first built over a century ago. Their numbers have been augmented by modern tramway or light rail systems in cities which had discarded this form of transport.
Rapid transit or mass rapid transit (MRT), also known as heavy rail or metro, is a type of high-capacity public transport that is generally built in urban areas. A rapid transit system that primarily or traditionally runs below the surface may be called a subway, tube, or underground. Unlike buses or trams, rapid transit systems are railways, usually electric, that operate on an exclusive right-of-way, which cannot be accessed by pedestrians or other vehicles. They are often grade-separated in tunnels or on elevated railways.
Duboce and Church is a light rail stop on the Muni Metro J Church and N Judah lines, located in the Duboce Triangle neighborhood of San Francisco, California. Just east of the station, the two lines enter the Market Street subway. The stop originally opened with the 22 Fillmore line in 1895. The station has complex layout with two side platforms in the middle of Duboce Avenue for the N Judah, one side platform in the middle of Church Street for northbound J Church trains entering the Market Street subway, and two mini-high platforms at the subway portal which provides access to both lines for people with disabilities.
The tram system of Porto in Portugal is operated by the Sociedade de Transportes Colectivos do Porto (STCP) and currently has three regular tram routes with 30-minute headways. All are heritage tram routes, as they use vintage tramcars exclusively, and should not be confused with the modern Porto Metro light rail system.
Transport in Moscow includes buses, trams, subway system, motorways, trains, helicopters and planes to provide connectivity between Moscow's districts and beyond.
The Moscow tramway network, which is divided into two sub-networks, is a key element of the public transport system in Moscow, the capital city of Russia. Opened in 1872, it has been operated since 1958 until 2021 by Mosgortrans, a state-owned company.
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