Line 213 Prague

Country : Czech Republic ; Region / city : Prague (1.2 million inhabitants) Type of route : tangential (connection between housing area and two metro lines)

Background / Context

Prague covers an area of 496 square km with almost 1.2 million inhabitants. Prague is characterized by massive commuting from large suburban residential areas to the city centre, which results in high demands on public and also individual transport. The backbone of PT network in city is 3 metro lines (59,4 km), which are supported in city center and middle part of city by trams (network of 141,6 km) and buses at tangential and local lines out of city center (network of 690 km). Metro, tram and about 92% of city bus lines are operated by Prague Public Transit Co., Inc, which is owned 100% by City of Prague. In region there are number of radial rail lines (operated by Czech railways) and a lot of radial, tangential and local bus lines (operated by different operators).

Since 1994 there is developed Prague Integrated Transport System (PIT), which covers all PT modes (included suburban trains and buses) and guarantees integrated tariff and coordination of timetables for easy interchange. The coordinator “ROPID” is also responsible for network planning and contract- ing (tendering) PT services to operators.

During last 20 years there has been significant priority of development rail modes in city (metro and trams) with huge investment into network extensions. Situation of PT buses was more complicated, because of increasing private motorization and daily congestion on main roads with negative influence to punctuality and commercial speed of buses. Anyway since 1994 was started first projects of dedi- cated bus lanes and since 2003 was used active priority at traffic lights.

For increasing quality and attractiveness of PT buses was prepared concept of bus network hierarchi- zation (metrobuses / normal buses / minibuses). Realization of that project is being in progress. There are step-by-step bus network changing from year 2008. Another good progress is in development of bus priority. Full realization of whole concept including marketing and promotion (“official beginning of metrobus operation”) is still in stakeholder discussion.

Description

Infrastructure :

Length: 10.25 km (16% dedicated – partly shared with trams and partly with taxis and cyclist) Width of bus lanes: one way – min. 3.25 m

Average station spacing: 600m

Road crossings: grade intersections, priority at 27% of traffic lights

Buses :

Type: standard busses (planned articulated) – 50% low-floor

Length: 12m (planned 18m with 5 doors for improving the dwell times) Capacity: 66 (planned 97)

ITS tools :

For passengers(visual and vocal information):

At station: static schedules, ticket vending machines (key stops).

On board: line number, direction, next stop, disturbances or service changes; voice information on demand for blind people – line number and direction + information for driver about getting on of blind person.

For drivers: AVL, priority at traffic lights, door and rear cameras (new vehicles).

For regulator: AVL, radio connection (with emergency button and direct communication to Municipal Police): CCTV (stops, new vehicles).

Identification :

On the bus Same as other busses – logo and colour scheme of company and logo of PIT. On the running ways Only at dedicated parts – traffic signs by Czech law

At the stations Same as other lines – sign of bus, No. of line and direction, uniform scheme

Cost and Financing sources if available (in €)

Investment costs: 0,03 M€ / km (excl. vehicles)

Vehicles: 0,20 M€ (standard), 0,28 M€ (articulated) Operating costs: 1,8 € / km

Some results

Ridership : 18.000 passengers / working day Headways: 6 min (peak), 12 min (off-peak) Schedule span: 5h00 am – 0h30 am

Regularity : 80% punctuality (H-0min; H+2min) Commercial speed : 21,8 km/h (peak)

Accidents : 2,1 accidents per 100 000 km

Success factors / Strengths

There are quite good financial support from City of Prague into public transport (operation and in- vestment), which allows very huge density of PT services on one side and quite cheap fares on other side, with result of modal shift between PT and cars 57:43.

Prague PT is also customer oriented by quality management. Internal service quality programme by EN 13816 was developed in 1998 and since 2010 has been included into contract between Prague and all bus operators of Prague Integrated Transport. One of key factors is accessibility for disabled people – low floor vehicles, lifts to metro stations, voice information on demand for blind people (metro, tram and busses).

In bus PT there are good results using dedicated bus lines and also priority at traffic lights. Prague PT offers quite high ratio of articulated buses, which are more effective on high demanded lines. There are also good results providing more doors (4 in 12m bus, 5 in 18 m bus) to decrease boarding time at new vehicles. Quite positive is also new on-board camera system, which decreases level of vandalism.

Barriers / weaknesses / Points to monitor

There is still significant priority for investment into rail modes (metro and trams) and after a lot of changes still relatively low level of attractiveness of PT busses, which in fact decrease amount of money available for further bus system improvement. The BHLS (Metrobus) concept has not yet full stakeholder consensus, which is key reason for its present step by step implementation.

Lessons learnt

There are quite effective using even local priority measures (even short dedicated lanes, priority at traffic lights, right of way for busses at crossroads or for easy bus stop departure, etc.). There are very good results with sharing tram track and tram stops also for busses. There are also quite close coopera- tion to disabled people communities (consultation of network planning – special bus lines for wheel- chair users, consultation of new vehicles construction and equipment, consultation of new information tools and graphic schemes, etc.).

References and contacts for further details Institution : Prague Public Transit Co., Inc.