Enter the guided bus
Page 21
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• A system of rapid transit which combines the principal advantages of segregated rail transit with the flexibility of the conventional modern single-deck bus is the Throughways Rapid Transit System, which is fully described in a prospectus prepared by the Throughways Transport Ltd. consortium. The system combines the use of buses driven in a conventional manner on feeder services leading to a special Throughways track, which enables the vehicles to pass over (or beneath) roads leading to the centre of cities or conurbations without being subject to the delays caused by traffic congestion on the normal approach roads.
By introducing a simple guidance system into the Throughways track, lateral steering of the vehicles becomes automatic, the driver being responsible only for headway control, or overriding the automatic steerage in event of an emergency. The probe arm which guides the bus on the special track can be retracted through a clutch operation and is then held beneath the floor of the vehicle. Introducing an elaborate form of signalling, the Throughways track can, it is claimed, handle a throughput of more than 300 buses an hour, moving a total of 14,400 seated passengers an hour, or 28,800 commuters in a two-hour peak period.
This capacity compares with an average total of 127,000 commuters carried into the central district of Manchester by public transport on a normal working day (1967 estimate). Of these, 27,000 travelled by rail and the remainder by bus. (See pages 32-33 for fuller story.)