Bombardier’s Guided BRT Is A Bust In Caen
With all the hoopla about BRT, it is interesting to note that the Caen TVR (proprietary guided bus) being in operation for a few short years, is being abandoned in favour of LRT. To be competitive with light rail/streetcar, BRT must be guided and if BRT is guided, it must run on its own rights-of-ways, in fact it must operate as a tram. This fact is not lost on promoters of BRT, as they design their buses to look like trams.
The cost of TVR was about 25% less than a tram to install, but it was supposed to attract the same amount of ridership and have similar operating capabilities. In revenue operationAi??TVR didn’t meet expectations and finally added to the mix was the ominous; “it was no longer being actively supported by the manufacturers“, the death knell of proprietary transit systems.
TVR has proven to be an expensive experimental BRT system that has failed, yet in BC, indeed in North America, BRT is being promoted as a successful transit mode, but in most cases (such as BC) what is being presented as BRT is not really BRT at all, just a tarted up express bus service, that offers few, if any, amenities other than having few stops which gives it a faster service. This is something to remember when TransLink and the mainstream media bang the drum for Bus Rapid Transit.
Bombardier Transportation’s “light guided transit” — an electric trolley bus running under overhead wire with a one centered guidance rail — proved to be a bust in the city of Caen which now plans to replace the system with conventional light rail — a conversion that will take 18 months, according to Railway Gazette International. Here’s a view of the technology to be abandoned:
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_9fJALTovDT4/TFm0EEpqbjI/\
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This Wikipedia article contains a description of “trams on tyres” and shows the guidance systems used by Bombardier and Lohr Industrie:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guided_bus
And the news story:
http://www.railwaygazette.com/nc/news/single-view/view/\
caen-to-switch-to-light-rail/archiv/2011/12.html
“Caen to switch to light rail
19 December 2011FRANCE: On December 14 Caen transport authority ViacitAi??s confirmed its intention to abandon its TVR rubber-guided light transit route and replace it with conventional light rail by 2018.
ViacitAi??s estimates it will take 18 months to replace the TVR guideway with tram track on the 15 km (9.7-mile) Y-shaped network, at a cost of ai??i??170m $221.2 million USD). The change will require the termination of two concession contracts currently held by and Keolis, and Bombardier-Spie Batignolles consortium STVR.
Following completion of the network at a cost of ai??i??215m ($279.8 million USD), local operator Twisto began TVR operations in November 17 2002, under a 30-year concession. This was two years after a similar TVR service began in Nancy. However, the TVR technology has proved unreliable, and is no longer being actively supported by the manufacturers. Conversion to light rail is expected to pave the way for construction of a second line in the future.
