[sustran] Re: dedicated busway, more buses

[Ananthakrishnan]

Many thanks for the responses. Will try to get these points clarified
earliest.  The Government of the State in question is in the grip of an
entirely unrelated crisis - one of its prominent actors was kidnapped by
forest bandits a day after the busway report appeared. We will unfortunately
have to wait for this crisis (which has led to riots and arson in Bangalore)
to blow over before working on such mundane things as transport.  Just one
of those Indian peculiarities.
Ananthakrishnan

----- Original Message -----
From: "ecoplan (paris)" <eric.britton at ecoplan.org>
To: <sustran-discuss at jca.ax.apc.org>
Cc: <access-forum at egroups.com>
Sent: Tuesday, August 01, 2000 8:17 PM
Subject: [sustran] dedicated busway, more buses


> The Hindu reported on July 30: "2000 Volvo buses from Sweden are to be
> placed on select routes in Bangalore,
> Southern India. The State Transport Minister, C.R.Sageer Ahmed said the
> first phase of the Metro Bus Project involved a 12 km dedicated track
> between Jayanagar Bus Station and Shivajinagar Bus Station." (Thanks to G.
> Ananthakrishnan,)
>
> Dear Colleagues,
>
> This "Metro Bus Project", to respond to Wendell Cox's question, is indeed
a
> derivative of the original Curitiba project, of which the latest version
is
> currently abuidling in Bogotá under the name Transmilenio. (For the former
> you can go to @ccess on the Web site at http://www.ecoplan.org/access,
click
> Learning From and then Curitiba), and for the latter go to
> http://www.alcaldiabogota.gov.co/transmilenio/index.html)
>
> The tone of the article seems to indicate that this is a sure thing, with
> "The buses expected to
> be on Bangalore roads by December".  That might well be a good thing, but
I
> am obliged to wonder how realistic it is.  This is not to pour cold water
on
> what can be a terrific transportation concept in the right circumstances,
> but let me see if I can try to put this into quick perspective.  I'll do
> this here in public and give those better informed and closer to the
sources
> an opportunity to correct and amplify.  Here are my main sticking points:
>
> 1. If they are to meet their December deadline, then they must almost be
> through building the guideway and those buses must be well advanced on the
> assembly line.  Building the infrastructure for these SurfaceMetro systems
> (as well tend to call them) is not something that can be done overnight.
> (Again a progress check of the Transmilenio should help clarify how this
> works.)
>
> 2. These systems make a pretty considerable claim on the urban real estate
> in each place. Usually they require wide urban boulevards, which of course
> are not always so easy to find in densely built up areas.
>
> 3. The article suggest that the Swedish Development Agency might pay for
the
> buses.  Well, if so they better already have the money in the bank.  While
> SIDA is an efficient organization by the usual international standards, it
> still is very much a government bureaucracy, and things take time there.
> Also, it may be noted that the Swedes have not been handing over very many
> of their hard earned Kroner since the Indian government decided that they
> needed to test a few atomic bombs.  Indeed, I do think that the Scan-well
is
> running quite dry at the moment.
>
> 4. Other sticking points for such a project, and all the more given the
very
> tight reported timetable, include: (a) the not so evident telematics which
> are required to support a system of this sort (identification,
acquisition,
> financing and getting the stuff on line, tested and debugged to permit
> commercial operation); (b) the organizational and management challenges
> involved in making such a novel system work properly; and (c) the small
> problem of how you handle the problem of what is in effect competition
with
> the private bus operators and other transporters who compete for the same
> street space.  Never mind all the usual car folk, who rarely take this
sort
> of thing lying down.
>
> I sincerely hope that someone is going to step forward now and correct my
> errors and worries as set out in the above, because it would sure be great
> to know for a fact that a terrific new, high performing, cost-effective,
> clean, affordable, etc. transport system was about to come on line in
> Bangalore.  The world certainly needs such examples.  And if this project
is
> actually on, we will be pleased to open up a portion of the site in our
> @ccess on the Web program to help track progress.
>
> Eric Britton
>
> ecopl at n ___  technology, economy, society  ___
> Le Frene, 8/10 rue Joseph Bara, 75006 Paris, France
> Eric.Britton at ecoplan.org     URL www.ecoplan.org
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