15: Understanding the City Link Bus as a Tram on Rubber Wheels
What if the red city link bus was more like a tram on rubber wheels?
Ok, so trams do have wheels, steel ones on rails. But bear with me, they also tend to be used for short intra-city trips like the City Link Bus route, and therefore have different seating layouts compared to longer haul trains and buses. Anyone who regularly rides the City Link Bus must have noticed how busy it is, often with very little standing room.
Wouldn’t it be great if this bus was designed more like a tram, with inwards-facing (longitudinal) seats creating much more standing room and supporting the hop on, hop off nature of short trips?
(Image Credit: Craig https://www.flickr.com/photos/craigsyd)
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Damn good idea.
Plus:
1. Proper priority at lights
2. Bus lanes on Queen St
3. Better still – no traffic on Queen St
4. Boarding at front; disembarking at rear
5. Better still – double-width doors with boarding and disembarking at both
6. HOP only
7. Even better: no HOP or cash fares. The damn thing is free anyway so let’s speed the service up ten-fold by not having to fart around endlessly at every stop. Could probably halve the number of buses and drivers and still keep the same frequency
(8. Or better still, double the frequency)
I think one of the dumbest things Auckland did was rip up the tram lines. The trams in Melbourne are fantastic
And not just Auckland. Pretty much every city in the entire English-speaking world made this dumb decision. When you see continental European cities that have retained and developed their tram systems it is just unbelieveable how stupid the Anglo-Saxons have been. And in many ways, are still being!
Our inner city roads seem to need resealing and resurfacing so often as it is, just whack them back in some time.
If only it were that simple……
Put it on rails like Christchurch has managed to.
An even better idea could be to extend the pointless loop tram to Britomart..
For some reason Waterfront Ak are blocking it. Could it be because eir anchor tenants t Wynyard hate PT?
The money’s been there to do it for a couple of years now…
Where’s your source that Waterfront Akl are blocking it? or that the money has been available to do it? Any extension to Britomart would run along Quay Street and as such would be dependent on AT and AC being on board, and I’ve yet to hear either of them being very supportive.
In any case, the resource consent for Wynyard requires a 75% mode share for PT, so all development is based around that, any tenants that locate there will be moving there knowing that.
NZ Bus basically bought a bunch of buses none of which are large enough or designed for the routes they run. Case in point is the City Link and Inner Link both of which are set up like buses that do long runs, whereas both are full of people getting on and off after a few stops. However, the narrow aisles make it impossible to easily get in and out when the bus is full. I don’t see why AT aren’t requiring such things in their contracts.
Indeed, the buses are just not designed for this sort of service.
http://greaterakl.wpengine.com/2013/12/04/the-wrong-buses/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_Dennis_Enviro200_Dart
We have “red buses” for the CityLink. We have red trams already in Auckland. Let’s extend the tram line from Wynyard Quarter to K Rd. … Not impossible, so long as it is managed well :thumbsup: 🙂
Not just the link. I’ve noticed on the newer Dominion Road buses that if they rotated one side of seats between the front and back door, they would only lose one (maybe two) seats but create a lot more standing / entering / exiting space.
This is a great suggestion and needs to be investigated by NZBus and Auckland Transport now.
Re: Trams. The Citylink already goes to Wynyard. Perhaps we should spend what little funding there is, on improving seating, priority and frequency of that service first?
“””Perhaps we should spend what little funding there is, on improving seating, priority and frequency of that service first”””
If National are booted out in 3 weeks’ time, there may soon be lots of funding for doing PT properly instead of always on the cheap.
A change in funding priority doesn’t mean we should just go on a spending splurge regardless of mode.
Has anyone tried to directly engage NZBus on this matter? (if not, I might)
Fantastic idea. Also bus lane around Tamaki drive please. It’s so stupid how the bus sits in rush hour traffic from Kohi to the T lane at Okahu.
Wasn’t Zane Fulljames going to do a blog post about why they went with the ADL200’s?
NZ Bus has invested approx $140m in its very successful and popular ADL fleet which now run around both Auckland and Wellington. They are the right sized bus, purpose built to work in with an integrated PT network which feeds rail, provides interconnectivity and moves people around congested inner city areas – exactly the style of network that is being developed in Auckland. Experience overseas has proven the suitability of the ADLs to this environment, with over 2000 buses sold worldwide each year.
We selected ADLs because they are a lightweight bus of the highest quality, reliable, safe with an Euro 5+ emissions standard, environmentally friendly and fuel efficient.
The Red City LINK passenger numbers climbed 12% between July 2013 and July 2014 and along with the Inner Link and Outer Link services they carried over 6 million passengers in the last year. Such growth indicates the quality of service design but the increasing numbers justify an ongoing review of capacity, frequency and design.
Aisle width and seating capacity is clearly in-line with regulatory requirements, but we always welcome new ideas. The suggestion for “tram-like” longitudinal seating is a good idea, and we are supportive of more standing room for hop on and off services.
We welcome continued feedback on ways to improve our services.
The seating in the ADLs appears to be modular, bracket mounted on a side rail. Is that right Zane?
Seems to me it would be very simple to run a test unit to evaluate performance and passenger satisfaction. I would suggest taking all the seating on the low floor section and refitting the units longitudinally, leaving the high floor section as it is. Party up front, business out the back as it were.
As a someone who until recently lived at one end of the City Link and worked and played at the other, I used the thing about twenty times a week. My experience is that rather than a simple standing room issue, which there is, the main issue is circulation. Getting on and off, getting to somewhere to stand or sit, getting out again. Every day I would have to step off the back door to let people out, then step back onboard again. The second someone had a pram, some shopping or a bag it went haywire.
For the City Link, which is definitely not a feeder route or commuter express but a city circulator shuttle, the single rear door and narrow aisle was a mistake. Not much can be done about the rear door, but it would be quite simple to open up the front of the cabin so people can move around.
So how about it, trial a unit or two with longitudinal seating up front?
How feasible would it be to simply remove all the seats between the front and back doors on one side of the bus (right side), leaving double forward facing on the other. Personally I find forward facing seats more comfortable than side facing. Would help with the circulation and access issue too I think as well.
Thanks for replying Zane. I don’t have an issue with the size of the bus but agree that seating vs standing could be improved.
Agree Bryce, I am keen to run trials and test our own and others innovative thinking , specs are however determined via Requirements for Urban Buses ( NZTA) and contractual terms with local authorities and these factors combined can at times limit the pace of change.
Agree Bryce, I am keen to run trials and test our own and others innovative thinking , specs are however determined via Requirements for Urban Buses ( NZTA) and contractual terms with local authorities and these factors combined can at times limit the pace of change.
wow! a tram that’s like a bus? How about this extremely affordable version from the land where they always do things on the cheap. Wales.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ftrmetro_Swansea#mediaviewer/File:Ftr_bus_in_West_Way,_Swansea_city_centre,_19035_(S40_FTR),_2_October_2009.jpg
Interior….
https://www.transportxtra.com/files/1710-l.jpg
Why does the City Link bus stop at the bottom of Queen St?
Wouldn’t it make more sense to only stop at Wynyard – seeing as how that is effectively “end of the line”.
Because the K Rd to Britomart section is the bit with wildly varying travel times and reliability. That timing stop ensures more even frequency between Britomart and Wynyard, and better reliability overall.
Of course some bus lanes or a transit mall on Queen st would probably remove the need for a timing stop, as it would be far faster and more reliable.