New York Metropolitan Transit Authority (MTA) has been converting a number of bus routes to their Select Bus Service product over the last decade or so. Select Bus Service, SBS, is aimed at reducing journey time and increasing reliability, primarily through better traffic management, such as signal priority or bus lanes. There are generally also fewer stops, and stops separated from other bus routes. The SBS product is aimed at the higher frequency routes which fill in the gaps in the Subway suburban rail network.
January 2020 gave me the chance to see SBS in action.
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| SBS comes with a considerable list of instructions. Historically in New York, when you board a bus you paid cash or 'dipped' your Metrocard (season ticket or stored value card) in a reader as you enter. Simple technology demands simple processes and Metrocard is pretty simple all round. |
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| However SBS relies on off-bus ticketing. They achieve that by requiring the Metrocard (or cash fare to be paid) at kerbside ticket machines. |
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| You are then issues a receipt, or a ticket, valid for travel on SBS. The fare doesn't cost any more, nor is the ticket routinely checked, but it allows multi-door boarding on SBS buses. The Metrocard has always offered good value fare when transferring between buses or buses and Subway, and this is retained on the SBS. However it does seem like something of an unnecessary faff building and maintaining a load of roadside infrastructure, particularly when London's similar system was not deemed worth retaining, and when contactless payment is being rolled out in New York. However, maybe the additional revenue from faster and more reliable journey times makes it worthwhile, and maybe an on-vehicle system for checking tickets, as is the norm in central/Eastern Europe, is not practical for Metrocard. |
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| Real time information display. Not working! |
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| The vehicles used on SBS are standard city buses, in this case on the M60 manufactured in the USA by Nova Bus. This is notable as SBS refers to itself as bus rapid transit (BRT), and some applications of BRT, particularly in the UK, have tended to over-specify and over-complicate the vehicle. |
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| Interior of the Nova Bus low floor SBS vehicle. Very much a standard US city bus with plastic moulded seats and a traditional wire bell pull running along the windows. Considering the general modal preference for rail over bus for people with access to a private car, I wonder if SBS has attracted much modal shift. No doubt that journey time reliability and journey time reduction are key to enhancing bus patronage however. Therefore despite the faffy approach to ticketing and the no-nonsense vehicles, I quite like the SBS style. Further, some of the highway infrastructure for SBS also benefits other bus routes, enhancing reliability all round, |