Buses World News
In brief: Worldwide montly news & informations about Buses, Busmakers, Passengers' and the Transport Industry
BYD China * Europe: To build a factory in France
* Hauts-de-France - BYD to invest €10M in electric bus assembly in Beauvais
--- BYD Europe BV At a recent press conference in Beauvais, announced the Chinese group's decision to invest €10 million in a site in the town of Allonne, near Beauvais, in Hauts-de-France, intended to create an assembly factory for Europe... The project calls for around 100 jobs to be created in the initial phase. The production facility will occupy 32,000 sq m of a parcel totaling nearly 80,000 sq m, and will assemble up to 200 vehicles a year - single-deck buses and coaches - in its first phase. Other vehicles may be added as BYD expands its product line... Production is scheduled to get underway in the first half of 2018... BYD Europe, chose France because it has Europe's largest bus market...
(Photo: A twin- bus Pure Electric, by BYD) -- Schiedam, The Netherlands - Busworld - 24 MAR 2017Labels: busmakers news China, busmakers news Europe, passengers transport industry
IDEAS TO SOLVE UNUSUAL CONGESTIONS * Australia: BRT
* Tasmania - Buses key to solving Hobart gridlock issue
-- It seems obvious — the road network cannot manage the traffic volume, it fills up with cars and it comes to a standstill, enraging drivers and creating productivity losses... But cars are not the sole cause. Drivers make the decision to drive to work. We all love our cars and the freedom they provide... Congestion has become a problem in Australia because other travel options are not as convenient as driving your car. But public transport can be made more attractive... Here are some ideas to give short to medium-term relief:
* BUS priority lanes on major city roads in peak times, 7.30am to 9.30am and 4.30pm to 6.30pm, that can also be used by cars with three or more passengers.
* REINFORCE peak period bus priority by running buses on key routes in peak times every 10 minutes.
* INTRODUCE an Any Bus, Any Time approach so all buses on a route can stop and pick up at every stop.
* DURING non-peak times services should run every 30 minutes from 6.30am to 9.30pm for early starters and late finishers
* INTRODUCE bus priority lay off areas and “B lights” at all traffic lights so buses can get ahead of the traffic.
* IMPROVE bus interchange facilities to enable bus service providers to deliver seamless transfers between services.
* DO a bus-stop infrastructure upgrade to provide enclosed bus stops to protect passengers from the weather, lighting for security at night, and be 400m from every home.
* PROVIDE real-time information at bus stops and, through trip-plan web applications, give passengers information about when the bus is expected.
* INTRODUCE Wi-Fi on buses and continue to implement statewide integrated ticketing.
* BUILD park and ride facilities so drivers can park near major bus stops in outer Hobart and surrounding towns.
* CONTINUE to implement a long-term bus replacement program that reduces the average age of the fleet to 12 years and invest in new vehicle and intelligent transport system technology.
... This would be an investment in the future livability and functionality not only for Hobart as a city...
(Picture by NIKKI DAVIS-JONES - Passengers board a Metro bus in the Hobart bus mall) -- Hobart, Tasmania, Australia - The Mercury, by MICHAEL APPS: Executive director of the Bus Industry Confederation - March 25, 2016Labels: bus rapid transit - BRT, passengers transport industry, traffic congestions
NEW APPS USA - * 'Here Comes the Bus' - ** New "Transit App"
* Colorado - New app helps parents track PSD buses
-- Parents of dawdling school children can now turn to their computer for confirmation that it's time for their kids to put their pants on or miss the morning bus... Poudre School District, in an attempt to answer the age-old question of whether buses are running on time, began using the free "Here Comes the Bus" app earlier this month. Parents of district students — given they know their child's student ID number — can learn if a bus is running late, for weather or other reasons, and get a good idea of what time it will arrive at their bus stop... PSD provides bus service for students who live certain distances away from their neighborhood school. That distance is 1 mile for elementary students, 1 1/2 miles for middle school students and 2 miles for high school students...
(Photo: Austin Humphreys/The Coloradoan: Students board a school bus to head home after a day at Tavelli Elementary School on Tuesday in Fort Collins. A new computer app allows parents of Poudre School District students to track their children's buses) -- Poudre. COL, USA - The Coloradoan, by Rob White - January 27, 2016
** Pennsylvania - New Transit App allows real time tracking of Port Authority buses
-- Thousands of people use public transportation to get where they are going in Pittsburgh... Now, a local group wants to help riders get to their destinations faster... Pittsburghers for Public Transit has been out on the town letting people know about the best way to utilize technology... Real time data is now available for Port Authority buses on an app called Transit... The Transit app is free for iPhone and Android users, as are the true time numbers from the Port Authority website...
(Photo: Where's my bus? Smart phone program will give real-time routes of transit buses) -- Pittsburgh, PENN, USA - KDKA, by Rick Dayton – January 26, 2016Labels: mobile application, passengers transport industry, school buses transportation industry
BUS PASSENGERS TRANSPORT INDUSTRY * Germany - General Atlantic enters German long distance bus business
-- Buyout group General Atlantic is taking a stake in German bus companies FlixBus and MeinFernbus, which are merging to combine their routes, the companies said in a statement on Wednesday... The German bus market attracted a raft of new entrants when it was liberalised in 2013, but several players have already dropped out due to stiff competition... MeinFernbus operates 560 busses, more than twice the 240 owned by FlixBus... The combined business, currently majority-owned by the company's founders, has so far transported a combined 14 million passengers in both 2012 and 2013... Frankfurt,Germany -Reuters/India Times (India) -7 Jan, 2015
Labels: passengers transport industry
PUBLIC TRANSPORT SYSTEM * UK: Bus services
* England - Campaign for Better Transport: facing 'crisis'
(Photo: A man using a bus)
London,EN,UK -BBC News -12 January 2015: -- Budget cuts by councils have left bus services facing a crisis, a report by the Campaign for Better Transport says... The group says half the councils in England and Wales have cut funding for buses in 2014/15, amounting to more than £9m when compared with 2013/14... The CBT said its figures came from Freedom of Information Act requests... A Department for Transport spokesman said decisions about buses were best made locally but the government provided "substantial funding"... The CBT said local authority funding for bus services had been slashed by 15% since 2010, or £44m, with more than 2,000 routes being reduced or withdrawn entirely... Its report also says that:
* Rural areas have been worst hit by cuts, seeing average budget reductions of 19% this year
* In 2014/15, nearly 500 bus services were cut, altered or withdrawn
* 22 councils cut bus funding by more than 10% in 2014/15
* The overall reduction in Wales in 2014/15 is more than £900,000, with 86 bus services having been cut, altered or withdrawnLabels: passengers transport industry
PASSENGERS TRANSPORT INDUSTRY * USA: Want a problem-free trip ... ? ?
* New York - ... Try the bus !!
(Photo: Frank Espich, Indianapolis Star - Despite less federal oversight, bus lines generate far fewer consumer complaints than airlines)
NY,USA -USA TODAY, by Christopher Elliott -January 11, 2015: -- It's difficult to understate the rarity of Shannon Lee's complaint. It's almost as unusual as the topic of this story: bus travel... Bus complaints are almost non-existent, at least compared with airlines. The real reason behind this absence of passenger discontent may hold the key to making other parts of the travel industry better and more complaint-free... How did the decidedly unglamorous bus industry get so attuned to its customers? Transporting about 80 million passengers a year while keeping them happy is no small achievement. It may explain the unprecedented expansion of city-to-city express carriers. They grew 2.1% in 2014, while the number of flights dropped 3% during the same period, according to new research... Part of the secret to the industry's success is the "laid back" culture of bus travel, says Joe Schwieterman, director of DePaul University's Chaddick Institute, which will release its study today. Bus travel is cheaper than other modes of transportation, which affects passenger expectations. You get exactly what you paid for: scheduled bus carriers have on-time ratings that exceed 90%, Schwieterman says... Another thing: If you run a bus company, you can't run away from your customers. "You know that you have to offer a good product at a fair price," says Dan Ronan, a spokesman for the American Bus Association, a trade association. If you're a passenger on a medium-size bus line, such as C&J, which offers service between New Hampshire, Boston and New York, it's not uncommon to see the company's president, Jim Jalbert, in the parking lot... Buses can offer better customer service than airlines in almost every way. Competition made them do it. Maybe we need more of that...Labels: passengers transport industry
TRANSPORT PUBLIC SERVICE * UK: Kids' - Roof top white buses
* England - Kids not catching buses are missing out – they’re a ticket to the real world
(Photograph: StudioCanal/Rex - Reg Varney in On The Buses: ‘The life-enhancing kind [of bus], often the smaller ones, where the driver is helpful, friendly and involved, helping people on and off’)
London,EN,UK -The Guardian, by David Boyle -1 December 2014: ... The Millennium Cohort Study, tracking 13,000 British children born between 2000 and 2002, are striking: apparently, nearly half of 11-year-olds had never been on a bus. One in six also spends more than three hours a day in front of a screen, and the combination of the two – this bus-less, virtual world – was what concerned the Daily Mail... There are actually two kinds of bus. There’s the life-enhancing kind, often the smaller ones, where the driver is helpful, friendly and involved, helping people on and off. I encountered a driver in Sussex last week who stopped the bus and phoned a colleague coming towards him just to help an older lady who had strayed too far the wrong way... The other kind is not life-enhancing, because the drivers are tightly controlled and their managers don’t allow them to do anything like that, so they are effectively mechanical adjuncts to their buses. I wouldn’t wish those on 11-year-olds... (There is also a third kind. The peculiar Boris exhibition buses in central London where there is an under-employed conductor staring out of the window wondering what to do – but that is by the way.)... But the whole implication of the Daily Mail’s report is that children have disappeared into a virtual world, and are losing their grip on reality... Well, I’m not convinced about this, as there is very little evidence one way or another... After all, the acid test of authenticity is whether it is possible to tell the truth to a future president travelling on an omnibus...
* England - Here’s why London’s famous red Bbses have white roofs
(Photographer: Getty Images - London buses seen from atop of St. Paul's Cathedral in the City of London)
London,EN,UK -Bloomberg News, by Alex Morales -Dec 2, 2014: ... Take Transport for London, which manages subways, buses and roads. Climate-proofing is built into its work, according to Helen Woolston, sustainability coordinator at TfL... One example: a program to install white panels atop the capital’s trademark red buses to reflect the rays of the summer sun and keep the vehicles cooler. After 10 years, 98.5 percent of the fleet of 8,700 has white roofs...
* England - 540 more buses in London by 2021 under £500m plan
(Photo - “Network’s backbone”: London buses. They now carry 2.4 billion people a year)
London,EN,UK -London Evening Star, by MATTHEW BEARD -3 December 2014: -- An extra 540 buses will be on the streets of London by the end of the decade as part of a £500 million investment plan announced today to cope with soaring demand... Services will be boosted to carry an extra 2.9 million passengers a week on the fleet of 7,500 vehicles... Buses already carry 2.4 billion passengers a year, but many routes are overcrowded at peak times... There will be more frequent services and some single-deckers will be switched to double... New bus lanes, longer hours for bus lanes, and priority turns will be added under a £200 million “bus priority scheme”. The spending proposals are included in Transport for London’s business plan, covering spending until 2021, which is subject to approval by the board tomorrow...Labels: passengers transport industry, transport public services
PASSENGERS' BUS SERVICE USA * Florida's
* Florida - JTA overhauls bus system
(Photo: David Williams, First Coast News)
Jacksonville,FLA,USA -First Coast News, by David Williams and Roger Weeder -December 3, 2014: -- The Jacksonville Transportation Authority is rolling out changes to its bus and shuttle system... More buses running taking more people to where they need to go. That's the goal driving an overhaul of the Jacksonville Transportation Agency's bus and shuttle system... JTA calls it "Route Optimization"... Launching Dec. 1, it's a complete overhaul of bus and shuttle service -- the first of its kind in 30 years... Labels: passengers transport industry, transport public services
PUBLIC TRANSPORT SERVICES * USA: Michigan Flyer
* Michigan Flyer invests $3.8M in new buses for AirRide airport shuttle service
(Photo Courtesy of Michigan Flyer: One of the new buses for the AirRide shuttle service)
Ann Arbor,MICH,USA -M Live, by Ryan Stanton -November 24, 2014: -- New eco-friendly buses are being put into service for the AirRide shuttle service from Ann Arbor to Detroit Metro Airport... Michigan Flyer has announced it's putting a brand-new fleet of seven luxury motorcoaches on the road this month, representing a $3.8 million investment by parent company Indian Trails... The company reports the new 2015 buses offer deluxe, ergonomic seating with leather headrests and ample leg room, individual climate controls, reading lamps and cup holders, tinted panoramic side windows, outlets at each seat for charging mobile devices, free WiFi, on-board lavatories, and enclosed overhead parcel racks... Safety features include an electronic stability system that enables drivers to avoid danger on slippery roads, an engine fire-detection and suppression system, two GPS systems, and a tire pressure monitoring system... All the buses are equipped with three-point retractable seat belts for passengers, ADA-compliant wheelchair lifts, and a large under-floor luggage compartment...
Labels: passengers transport industry, public transport services
HOLIDAY BUSES TRAVELERS * USA
* Texas - Holiday travelers take to planes, trains, autos and buses
(Photo: Travelers board Monday's 10 a.m. bus to Dallas at the Greyhound station in downtown Riverside)
Dallas,TXS,USA -The Press Enterprise, by PETER FISCHETTI -Nov. 24, 2014: -- “Planes, Trains and Automobiles” is a 1987 comedy and also the three preferred ways to travel over a holiday... But what about the lowly bus... Greyhound Lines, Inc., by far the largest bus company in the U.S.A., expects more than 650,000 customers over Thanksgiving. That sounds like a lot until you consider the Automobile Club of Southern California estimates 41.2 million will be driving and another 3.5 million will take to the skies. The rest will take the train... Still, the bus is a good option for some. In the U.S.A. an estimated 46 million people are taking off on Thanksgiving trips this year... At the Greyhound station in Riverside on Monday, travelers waited for buses to take them to Las Vegas, Mexico, Texas and Georgia in time for the holidays... With gas prices down about 49 cents from last Thanksgiving, travel should the highest since 2007, an increase of 4.2 percent over last year, the Automobile Club predicted...Labels: passengers transport industry
PUBLIC TRANSPORT SERVICE * India: Special section for female in buses
* Andhra Pradesh - Wire mesh between men, women in city buses
(Photo by A RADHAKRISHNA - The mesh and sliding door which separates ‘men’ and ‘women’ sections in Ordinary city buses of the RTC in Hyderabad)
Hyderabad,Andhra Pradesh,India -New India Express -24th November 2014: -- Second-year engineering student Mounika heaved a sigh of relief after boarding an RTC bus at Rathifile bus depot here on Sunday as she found separate sections for male and female passengers in her bus... The State Road Transport Corporation has partitioned the sections in eight ordinary city buses, to start with, with mesh and a sliding door after four rows of seats for women. With this, sections allotted for both genders are visibly segregated, aiming to put an end to harassment faced by women. In September, glass panes without sliding door were tried by the corporation. Much to the chagrin of women travelling on buses, men of all ages, including drunkards, move into women’s section, sometimes fall on them and occupy seats reserved for women. Hence the experiment. Women commuters, while welcoming the steps, suggested that a helpline phone number be displayed in buses for lodging complaints in case of harassment...Labels: passengers transport industry
PASSENGERS TRANSPORT INDUSTRY * UK
* North England - Volunteer Dales bus service is lifeline for district
(Photo: Ian Woolley, 76, a volunteer driver for the Little White Bus parked up outside Hawes in Upper Wensleydale)
Yorkshire,EN,USA -The Yorkshire Post -17 November 2014: -- Rural residents may
increasingly have to rely on themselves to run bus services as austerity-hit councils trim transport budgets further, a situation which exacerbates fears that
an erosion of key services is causing an exodus of young families from the most remote communities... The frequency of bus services has already been affected by
subsidy cuts, with North Yorkshire County Council alone having reduced what it pays to companies to run bus services in the county from £4.4m to £2.4m per year...To find innovative new ways to deliver services with less money, a Rural Exodus summit will be held by Richmondshire District Council and The Yorkshire Post at Tennants Auction Centre in Leyburn on Wednesday, bringing together key decision makers... And community-run bus services can be part of those innovative solutions, said Richmondshire District Council leader Councillor John Blackie, secured a £25,000 subsidy in May 2011 to set up Little
White Bus, a not-for-profit, community-run bus service which operates out of the Upper Wensleydale Community Office in Hawes... Labels: passengers transport industry
