1 7 - 1 ffi l [TCYji by Bill Godv
Page 38
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iticcess story of lial-a-bus
VEST Germany's
riedrichshafen dial-a-bus ervice has all but succumbed to )chnical problems caused .onically, by its popularity verloading the computer quipment.
Just outside Hanover, 500km irther north, the other stateponsored dial-a-bus service, etax scheme at Wunstorf has lso grown in stature and area overed by the service but has een more successful in tackling le computerised control of the peration.
By the end of this month the econd experimental period will ave been running for 18 lonths — it is expected that the ervice will become a
ermanent feature of public -ansport in the Greater Hanover egion.
One of the main objectives of le second phase of evaluation as to assess to what extent the ernand/use pattern of the dial-ride system can be reconciled dith cost-effectiveness.
The Wunstorf trial area has ,een further integrated with egular bus services to provide omplernentary facilities. Dial-alus drivers in the evening off
. peak period are now provided by • a contractor's taxis which are fitted with the necessary driver's • "command" console.
Retax buses of the 18 in use 14 are specially bodied VW LT 45 models — now serve an area of over 125sqkm with a population of round 40,000. Only fixed stops are served and of the 114 in the network over 50 are equipped with push-button call posts connected by landline to the control room.
At the remaining stops public phones are nearby, although only under five per cent use this method of registering their call. Around 18 per cent of passengers use the phone at their home or office while the majority of riders make their travel request at stops equipped with the electronic data • terminals.
How dial-a-bus has changed the travel pattern of people living in the trial area is shown by the increase of public transport usage in the three years since the scheme was superimposed on existing, but inadequate, bus services. In January 1979 around 1,000 passengers were carried daily by Retax buses; by January 1981 this had risen to over 2,500 per day.
Before the introduction of the facility only 48 per cent of all current riders had made use of buses so that over half all passengers now carried have been won over by public transport; 14 percent of the latter group formerly used their cars while others cycled, used a motorbike or walked.
At a cost of DM1.80 (40p} for a single trip or DIV11.20 with a multi-journey ticket travel by Rbus is attractively priced (at least while the subsidy is maintained at the present high level). Most of those travelling several times per week (34.8 per cent) hold a plastic credit card-style key which allows them to register their travel request at the callpost without having to make the 'protective' payment of DM 0.20.
A feature of the Wunstorf scheme is the introduction of a transfer to another vehicle at one of three service intersection points for certain routeings so that optimum use is made of vehicles in service. The transfer point — if required — is also indicated on the passenger printout The control centre located at the head office of the local bus company — Steinhuder-Meer-Bahn — assigns buses automatically to meet incoming requests and transmits origin and destination details for display on the alphanumerical console in the respective vehicle cab. Computer hardware and data transmission technology has been developed by Messerschmitt-Bolkow-Blohm.
Standing orders for daily pickups of regular passengers are also processed by the central computer.
The Wunstorf scheme has a "route' layout tied-in to the
commuter rail services to Hanover and other clestinatio in the area and travel request from call posts — and phones can be keyed in to the next convenient train departure fr, Wunstorf station with rail destinations having been allocated separate codes.
With an overall length of 6.02m the specially designed Ernst Auwarter bodies of mei framed grp construction pros 14 seats and space for 12 standing passengers. Headro is 1.90m and in some of the buses two seats have been removed to allow a pram to L carried.
Access to the 0.70m high fl (unladen) is by means of thre steps through a full-width Vo door, with twin outrigger leas giving a clear opening of 1.3F.
Although the six-cylinder diesel engine is 'inside' the passenger compartment, noi insulation is so effective that almost the only disturbance i caused by the seat mounting which creak and groan at eve turn in the road. Unladen wei of the VW buses in this speck Retax application is 2,800kg, with a permissible gvw of 4,700kg.