An 18-member team of U.S. planners and managers, sponsored by the Federal Transit
Administration, participated Nov. 10 to 18 in a field study of advanced western European
bus and hybrid vehicles relevant to bus rapid transit systems planned for the U.S.
The team visited systems now in operation, under construction, or in the testing stage
in Italy, Switzerland, France, Germany, and the United Kingdom. The participants mainly
represented the BRT Consortium cities of Oakland, Calif.; Hartford, Conn.; Cleveland;
Eugene, Ore.; Honolulu; and the Dulles Corridor in Virginia,
Among the systems under review were the STREAM medium capacity public transit system in
Trieste, Italy; the dual-mode articulated trolleybus system of Lausanne, Switzerland; the
CIVIS optically guided bus under development in Lyon, France, which has been ordered by
four French cities and now being phased in at Rouen; the guided bus of Essen, Germany,
which has been in operation since the 1980s; and the guided bus serving London’s
Millennium Dome.
The group’s comments are being refined into a technical report that will be made
available to BRT consortium cities and others, including registrants for the APTA/FTA ITS
Best Practices West Coast Workshop planned for March 22 and 23, 2001, which will examine
Intelligent Transportation Systems applications to BRT systems.
Initial comments by participants underscored the low-cost, low-tech approach of the
Essen guided bus system, the technical sophistication of the underground traction power
supply of STREAM in Trieste, and the advanced optical guidance capability of the CIVIS in
Lyon and Rouen.
The applicability of advanced European concepts to U.S. BRT systems now under
construction or in the planning stage is being reviewed in the months ahead, along with
those of traditional vehicles adapted to local requirements. An idea competition targeting
BRT corridors is also being sponsored by FTA, in cooperation with Calstart-Westart.
Return To International Focus
Some of these pages may include links to documents in the Adobe PDF format. Please download the Adobe PDF reader if you have not already done so.
