‘BRT is a partial success’

The Delhi Bus Rapid Transit system has succeeded in meeting some of its key objectives, said an assessment by Dario Hidalgo, a leading international transport expert.

The Delhi Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) system has succeeded in meeting some of its key objectives, said an assessment by Dario Hidalgo, a leading international transport expert on Saturday.

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Hidalgo, an authority on urban transport from the US with experience of working on BRT systems worldwide, has been in the Capital to assess the 5.8 km stretch of the BRT pilot corridor from Ambedkar Nagar to Moolchand.

He is a transport engineer with the US- based EMBARQ, the World Resources Institute Center for Sustainable Transport. Hidalgo carried out this assessment to suggest the next steps for improving the performance of this corridor.

“The average speed of buses on this corridor has increased from 12-13 km per hour to about 19 km per hour; more than 50 per cent of the people travelling on the corridor use these buses. The corridor has reduced average travel time for bus users by 35 per cent within the pilot corridor,” he said.

“The focus in Delhi has to shift towards reducing average person delay rather than vehicle delay,” he said. He has studied the ‘wait time’ for all types of motor vehicles at the Chirag Delhi intersection. The results indicate that the wait time for cars and two-wheelers is 96 per cent of the total wait time, and affects 32 per cent of the people moving through the corridor.

Compared to this, the wait time for a bus is only 4 per cent — but it affects a majority 68 per cent of the people as buses carry more, the report said.

The preliminary review shows that the pre-requisite infrastructure has been put in place for the pilot corridor. “The corridor will work more efficiently if more controlled bus operations are achieved. The service will have to be more reliable. This will require better supply and timely arrival of buses at the stations, low variability with good speed and less intervals and less breakdown,” said Hidalgo in his assessment.