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The Kim Ma-Yen Nghia BRT line, accepted in 2007 at a value of round US$55 million, started on New Yr’s Day in 2017. A full journey spanning 14.77 km was to take round 45 minutes.
Funded by loans from the World Financial institution, it was a part of the capital’s long-term public transport growth plans.
The World Financial institution hoped it could be the reply to visitors congestion and air pollution and be the muse for a transport system that entices folks to lastly change from non-public automobiles to public transport.
However six years later each authorities and specialists admit it has but to ship on its guarantees.
In response to knowledge from the Hanoi Public Transport Administration Middle, the Yen Nghia-Kim Ma BRT line served round 5 million passengers a yr in 2017-20.
After Covid-19 broke out, in 2021 the variety of passengers dropped to 1.8 million. Revenues fell from VND27.5 billion ($1.17 million) in 2018 to VND15.2 billion.
Nguyen Hoang Hai, director of the middle, mentioned the BRT nonetheless has the most important variety of passengers amongst all current bus networks.
Pre-Covid surveys instructed a excessive fee of individuals switching from non-public automobiles to the BRT, particularly folks with workplaces alongside the road. However from 2017 to 2020 the whole variety of passengers was almost unchanged.
In the meantime, the variety of non-public automobiles within the metropolis elevated by round 320,000 yearly since 2019, with motorbikes accounting for 80 p.c.
Hai blamed the failure of passenger numbers to extend on the very fact its so-called unique lane was incessantly encroached on by different automobiles.
“The BRT is designed to have a separate lane barricaded from different automobiles. However in actuality, there’s solely a line drawn on the street. It means the buses can not journey on the velocity they’re purported to, and are at a drawback in comparison with non-public automobiles.”
Lack of connectivity between the BRT and different public transport networks additionally means folks need to stroll lengthy distances to succeed in BRT stations. There may be presently just one BRT line, making it tough to develop a loyal consumer base.
Phan Le Binh, a visitors professional, mentioned the BRT’s biggest problem is the very fact it has to compete with non-public automobiles.
“Bus customers actually don’t have anything in opposition to the BRT as it’s actually a complicated mannequin of visitors. However so long as non-public automobiles are nonetheless the favored selection, the BRT will discover it laborious to win the hearts of individuals.”
Finish of trial
The Hanoi Division of Transport has proposed permitting sure different automobiles to make use of the BRT lanes, like buses and vans with at the very least 24 seats and people meant for official or emergency functions.
Specialists mentioned the proposal is an indication the BRT trial has ended.
Within the final 15 years, for the reason that BRT was first accepted, Hanoi by no means deliberate for a second line.
In a 2018 analysis report, the World Financial institution talked about plans to create new BRT strains like Dong Anh-West Lake and Le Duan-Giai Phong, however they continue to be on paper just because they’d value an excessive amount of.
Nguyen Van Thanh, former deputy head of the Directorate for Roads of Vietnam, mentioned apart from funding points the truth that Hanoi by no means pushed laborious sufficient to develop its public transport networks means the BRT by no means had an opportunity to actually take off.
The BRT can solely work as a part of an built-in speedy bus community, he mentioned.
“If we put just one line on trial and determine to cease, we can not ask the BRT to show itself to be efficient. This has triggered a damaging picture of the BRT, whereas it’s truly a contemporary and superior type of visitors.”
Binh mentioned the BRT took too lengthy to be accomplished, and through that point visitors infrastructure, inhabitants and the variety of automobiles had all modified significantly, making the BRT outdated and placing it in direct battle with private automobiles.
It made the BRT a nasty precedent, one thing that different localities, together with Hanoi, should not keen to comply with, he added.
The roads that the BRT runs via, like Le Van Luong, Lang Ha, Giang Vo, and Le Trong Tan are incessantly congested throughout rush hour.
Vehicles and motorbikes typically encroach into BRT lanes if there are not any visitors law enforcement officials round. It means a 15-km journey takes round 60 minutes as an alternative of the meant 45 minutes.
Thanh mentioned visitors congestion at areas with the BRT are merely a symptom of the community’s improper planning. Regardless of the mission’s big funding and supposedly intensive impacts on Hanoi’s visitors infrastructure, it was not deliberate as rigorously because it ought to have been.
“The Yen Nghia-Kim Ma line, regardless of having excessive visitors density, has little or no land for visitors… That’s disadvantageous for the BRT, which slows it down, inflicting visitors congestion to be much more extreme.”
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