International BRT Update

“What it ends up being able to accomplish is, one, you have very high frequencies anywhere along the rapid transit line because there are all these local buses feeding into it and going along for two or three stations or eight stations or 20 stations, but you’re also able to facilitate these fare-free transfers, these seamless transfers between local bus routes instead of having these buses go to a transfer center where they all pull up and dock and everybody gets off and goes and gets on another bus and you have to time the transfers,” Bench says.

Each station has fare gates, allowing for seamless transfers once a passenger is inside the fare prepaid area, Bench explains. “So you don’t have to pay again you just get on and off at whatever line you need to transfer to or if you are just transferring to go farther along the bus rapid transit line, no problem. So that’s how they end up with this very high frequency and also the seamless service and it’s just an amazing kind of symphony to watch all this occur,” he says.

“That was just awesome. I know that sounds very casual to say, but I don’t know how else to describe that system. It was just phenomenal. All of us were standing in awe watching what was happening there.”