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A historical overview of enhanced bus services in Australian cities: What has been tried, what has worked?

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  • Clifton, Geoffrey T.
  • Mulley, Corinne

Abstract

Enhanced bus services that aim to attract potential car users by offering qualities of services more closely aligned with those offered by the private car tend to emphasise frequency, connectivity, speed and travel time reliability. “Full” Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) is one end of the spectrum of such services that requires substantial investment in dedicated infrastructure to provide fast services but examples of enhanced services that do not require such infrastructure are more common in Australia and Europe than full BRT. This paper uses historical evidence to provide an overview of the development of these services in Australia and documents the existing evidence for the success of these initiatives taking into account the trade-offs that naturally occur as a result of the inherent constraints of network design with limited financial resources. This paper uses the concept of the passenger supply chain to describe which service attributes were targeted by the implementation of the enhanced service. It adds to the bus service literature by looking at aspects of quality of service rather than how the vehicles traverse the physical infrastructure.

Suggested Citation

  • Clifton, Geoffrey T. & Mulley, Corinne, 2016. "A historical overview of enhanced bus services in Australian cities: What has been tried, what has worked?," Research in Transportation Economics, Elsevier, vol. 59(C), pages 11-25.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:retrec:v:59:y:2016:i:c:p:11-25
    DOI: 10.1016/j.retrec.2016.07.009
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

    1. Clifton, Geoffrey & Mulley, Corinne, 2018. "Barriers and facilitators of integration between buses with a higher level of service and rail: An Australian case study," Research in Transportation Economics, Elsevier, vol. 69(C), pages 39-50.
    2. Chinnawat Hoonsiri & Vasin Kiattikomol & Siriluk Chiarakorn, 2020. "Energy Saving and CO 2 Reduction Potential from Partial Bus Routes Reduction Model in Bangkok Urban Fringe," Energies, MDPI, vol. 13(22), pages 1-18, November.
    3. Magalhães, David José Ahouagi Vaz de & Rivera-Gonzalez, Carlos, 2021. "Car users’ attitudes towards an enhanced bus system to mitigate urban congestion in a developing country," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 110(C), pages 452-464.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Bus; Buses with a high level of service; Passenger value chain; Travel time; Frequency; Connectivity;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • R41 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - Transportation Economics - - - Transportation: Demand, Supply, and Congestion; Travel Time; Safety and Accidents; Transportation Noise
    • R48 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - Transportation Economics - - - Government Pricing and Policy
    • R49 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - Transportation Economics - - - Other

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