International busmen identify their priorities
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DELEGATES to last week's International Union of Public Transport congress in The Hague agreed that the bus of tomorrow would be more attractive to passengers as well as being quieter and free of fumes.
Many speakers during question time criticized a paper by M Y. Savary of the Paris transport authority (reported in CM last week). He had said that present buses had noise levels of about 89dBA. Research work should be able to reduce this by 10dBA. Many delegates pointed out that many existing vehicles had noise levels of less than 80dBA and M Savary's paper only showed how out of step France was.
Mr L. H. Smith, general manager at Leicester, noted that quieter, cleaner buses generally meant lower power outputs and higher fuel consumptions. More attention should be given to petrol-engine emissions rather than devoting too much effort to diesels. Effort was also needed to improve internal vehicle noise levels.
A speaker from the Delft municipal bus fleet described experiments with dieselengine buses converted to run on 35 per cent LPG. He said that over 300 of these were running in Vienna. Smoke levels had been reduced by 50 per cent but, though oxides of nitrogen were reduced, carbon monoxide output was up. However, the MAN engines came very close to meeting the 1975 Californian legislation.
Mr L Back strom, general manager of the Stockholm fleet, described how his undertaking had progressively lowered its noise level standards from 84dB A (new vehicles in 1967) to 78dBA (buses now on order). The next target was 75dBA. He said that M Savary had been far too pessimistic about noise levels in his paper. Far lower noise levels than he had suggested were already feasible and, though maintenance and initial costs might be higher, these were necessary in order to attract passengers.
Discussing a paper by Herr H. Werz of Geneva tramways on automatic fare collection, Mr F. J. Lloyd, director-general of the West Midlands PTE, described his experience in introducing one-man Jperation. A simple farebox had enabled fast Doarding times and allowed annual savings Df £2000 per bus to be made. One-man Dperation had solved a staff shortage in less than three years and no drivers had needed to be recruited last year.
Dr W. Suchorzewski of Warsaw described :he fully automatic fare collection method in use there. Over 80 per cent of Polish :ransport undertakings used this method. tickets were sold through newspaper kiosks and inserted in vehicle-mounted cancelling machines. Five per cent were checked by inspectors. The system had proved effective even on bus routes which carried 8000 to 12,000 passengers per hour.
Dr Suchorzewski warned that it was necessary to closely adapt fare collection methods to passenger loadings. Success hinged around selling tickets in advance.
Herr G. J. Hohn of the Frankfurt municipal undertaking described the ultimate stage of an automatic fare collection system: one 'which involved no cash transaction. Passengers would carry an identity card which would be inserted in a machine on the bus. A central computer — linked to the bus by radio — would debit the card-holder's account.
In reply to the points raised, Herr Werz said that semi or fully automatic collection methods could be implemented when conductors had ceased to make a further contribution.
During a discussion on a paper on regional transport, Dr H. A. Dupuis of the Utrecht Authority told delegates that mere co-ordination of public transport modes was not enough; full integration was necessary. The ultimate objective for any undertaking was attracting passengers. In this no undertaking could stand in isolation.
Mr A. J. C. Valcke, general inspector of the Vicinaux undertaking in Brussels, said that at present the penetration of bus routes into city centres was not sufficient. Bus lanes were essential for intensive urban services but parking bans would probably be sufficient for inter-city services on radial routes.
M Robert Baratier from Paris said that operators should be free to apply local fare increases when they wanted to without bowing to outside pressures. The EEC should decide on overall fare levels and be prepared to pay subsidies where necessary. At present, in France, fares were laid down by the local prefecture on political lines.
Dr J. Podoski of Walsall University said that politicians must no longer wait until public transport was almost at a standstill before taking action. Close co-operation between transport specialists and town planners would be necessary to cope with the situation created in the next 25 years when twice as many people as at present would live in conurbations.
The last decade had been catastrophic for many public transport undertakings and a defensive attitude prevailed. There was no other remedy for public transport than offensive action, said Dr Podoski. Operators must push for bold decisions at government level before public transport died.
Mr P. I. A. Welding, director of planning and development of the Merseyside PTE, listed three main priorities for public transport planners. These were the introduction of more reserve track, limiting the penetration of private cars, and limiting the inflow of traffic at the edge of cities. Mr Welding, however, did not advocate the complete abolition of private cars from city centres.
The author of the paper, Dr H. J. van Zuylen, director of the Rotterdam Tramways, said in reply that it was hoped to give special attention to the problems of regional transport in the UK in the near future.
Several delegates had doubts about the value of computerized control in public transport undertakings as advocated by M R. Faure from the Paris transport undertaking. Even the author admitted that the computer system currently entering service in Paris was producing "kilos of paper" but no one yet knew which of it had any value. He pointed out in his introduction that he felt cybernetics could be used in quite small undertakings. There were many examples where experiments in controlling traffic lights to give priorities to buses were working successfully. The problems were rather different in large cities, however.
Mr Welding, of the MPTE, said that ways of observing the operation of buses in cities were now well known. The information so produced could be fed into a computer for analysis but the problem was to choose the relevant information from the computer which would make a significant difference to services.
"We are still a Very long way from wholesystem control by computer," he said.
Dr H. J. Bertclunann, vice-director of the Zurich Authority, described the computerized system currently being implemented in his undertaking. This controlled the 1000vehicle fleet and gave a visual indication of the state of the fleet in less than 20 seconds. It compared the actual times of short-journey vehicles with schedules, provided audible information for would-be passengers at bus stops and gave an indication of the numbers of passengers travelling at any one time. The first phase of this scheme, giving messages at the bus stops by the end of this year, was now being implemented.