BRT in India

Madhav Pai EMBARQ

Pai and Hidalgo, JnNURM Funded BRT Systems in India, A Review, TRB 2009

Background: JnNURM, NUTP and Delhi. 

The JnNURM 4 cities and their projects (road widening to BRT)

 How the projects are coming along

Early progress & lessons learnt:

Need for operational planning, demand estimation, external subsidies, and better institutional set up.

Conclusions/lessons learnt

OUTLINE

JnNURM – Urban Renewal Mission

Focus on efficiency in urban infrastructure and service delivery mechanisms

Focus on strengthening Municipal and other urban local bodies

Emphasis on community participation, and accountability towards citizens

National Urban Transport Policy

Focus on building people centric urban transport. To achieve its objective it recommends

– integrated land use and transport planning, – equitable allocation of road space, – priority to public transport, – priority to non-motorized transport, – discourage use of personal motor vehicles, – coordinated planning and – association with private sector

Marriage - JnNURM to NUTP

and

4 Road Widening Projects

became

4 Cities with an opportunity to create high quality public transport system, oriented to the user that offers fast,

comfortable and low cost urban mobility

Round 1 JnNURM

funded

BRT projects

in India

(Under Implementation)

1. Ahmedabad (Janmarg)

2. Indore (MetroJet)

3. Jaipur

4. Pune

Road widening projects transformed into BRT projects or projects developed with a focus on road infrastructure

System design was done without an operations plan as starting point

Very little or no demand estimation

Costs for all components of BRT not accounted for upfront (Technology, Rolling Stock, Staffing SPV)

Photo: Madhav Pai, EMBARQDelhi BRTS

(2008)

Delhi Busway - Initial CorridorInitial Operation: 2008Length: 5.6 KmStations: 12Ridership: N/A; 8,000 pphpdFrequency: 60 buses/hrCommercial Speed: 11-13 Km/hr

Median lane busways on Arterial – open system (0.1)Small shelters with narrow platforms – insufficient bays (0.25)Mixed fleet (0.25)Manual fare collection – on board, no central control (0.1)BRT Rating: 0.70 (18%)

Source: Pai and Hidalgo, JnNURM Funded BRT Systems in India: A Review, TRB 2009

@ Ambedkar Marg & Mehrauli Badarpur Road Junction

Bus priority at junction

Delhi bus corridor had several problems during the first weeks:

The traffic signals did not work properly. Signal cycles excessively long (12 minutes)

Bus queuing at stations - spillovers

High number of Blue Line Bus breakdowns in the bus lane.

Bus drivers were not well informed of the new operations. Additional traffic wardens have helped providing instructions.

Motor vehicles and two wheelers invaded the bus lanes

Pedestrian jaywalking

The difficulties received wide media coverage : focused on the problems for car drivers

Most problems are being corrected, but the concept is in doubt - expansion has slowed down

Delhi’s problems resulted in a negative impact for BRT all over India

Early Progress & Lessons Learnt

Boost to Bus Based - Public Transport

Change in perspective towards bus-based public transport

Realization in city bureaucracy for

restructuring state owned municipal corporations

implementing organized bus based public transport in cities where buses operate on carriageway contracts and/or IPT has major share.

Capacity Building

Bus Industry

Bus body building was a cottage industry until a few years ago.

In the last four years manufacturers through internal research and joint ventures have rapidly built capacity.

ITS Industry

Local manufacturers are working very hard to build capacity in manufacturing GPS devices, traffic signal technology and other ITS equipment.

Local manufacturers have managed to significantly drop costs

Consulting Expertise

Contractors

Exposure visits, MoUD workshops (Ahmedabad, Pune, Jaipur and Indore) and conferences (India Mobility) have provided an excellent platform for exchange

Capacity Building

Capacity Building

Difficulties of working with new vendors/contractors

Costs for technology haven’t stabilized, which makes financial planning extremely difficult

Technologies (buses and equipment) haven’t been fully tested and systems have to endure a learning process as industry matures

Financial Sustainability, Fare Levels & Bus Occupancy

Alternate revenue sources - Fixed annual subsidy; Land development

Fare levels are low, one rupee per kilometer or lower

Planned services maybe faster, more reliable and with better bus and information technologies, however planned bus occupancy is very high

Fares at these levels alone are not sufficient to provide adequate level of service and make the system financially sustainable

Convincing all City Staff There is buy-in from the main stakeholders of the project,

engineers, contractors, land development authorities implementing the project are not fully convinced.

Logic of running the buses in median lanes continues to be questioned

Buy-in and confidence in the project is required to make bold decisions

Transfers of primary stakeholder has been a big concern

Special efforts to emphasize the need for equitable allocation of road space to all its constituents (Pedestrians, Bicyclists, Public transport, IPT and Personal vehicles).

Staffing SPV’s Special Purpose Vehicle’s (SPV) currently

not staffed or staffed with public officials who are transferable

Staffing SPV’s with qualified competent full time staff is a big challenge

Current Status – 17 Cities are considering, planning or implementing busway/BRT projects.

10 of the 17 are being funded through JnNURM

Conclusions1. Systems reviewed are all expected to improve travel conditions,

quality and performance of public transport.

2. Systems in their current form will significantly contribute to mobility needs in Tier II cities, but are far from reducing the pressures of rapid motorization.

Recommendations

• Operations Plan – Should be the starting point of the design process

• Traffic Engineering – Implemented and managed by traffic engineers.

• Performance Based Contracts - Comprehensive, performance based specifications in contracts to cover for lack of experience on the vendors/contractors.

• Bus Operator & Fare Collection Contracts - Understand long term implications of contracts being negotiated with private parties for bus operations & fare collection.

• Technology – Fare Collection/Integration, Operations Control & Signals

• Monitoring, Supervision and Control – Post Implementation

THANK YOU!