Mr. Khuat Viet Hung, Vice Chairman in charge of the National Traffic Safety Committee, said that Hanoi’s bus route 01 currently does not fully meet the criteria of BRT service – Massive public transport by bus. – as the existing BRT lines in the world.
-PV: BRT bus route 01 Kim Ma bus station – Yen Nghia bus station has been operating for 5 years, what is your assessment?
– Mr. Khuat Viet Hung: Up to now, I still maintain the same opinion as when the first day of operation of this “BRT bus” line was that the service on this route could not meet the basic criteria of BRT service (Passenger transport system public bus-based mass public) that must have an absolute private lane, a hard separation, roughly fenced, not creating an opportunity for other vehicles to trespass, assign different levels or priority of credit. signal at the level intersection (when the BRT bus arrives, the traffic light turns green automatically);
The stop is closed and must have convenient and safe access for passengers; connecting infrastructure and ride diagrams with regular bus routes (with the function of gathering passengers), such as taxis, motorbike taxi; Major stops also include private parking. These infrastructure requirements are not yet available in Hanoi’s “BRT No. 1” line.
Mr. Khuat Viet Hung, Vice Chairman in charge of the National Traffic Safety Committee
More importantly, the system capacity itself is too weak, the bus can accommodate 90 seats like regular buses, the peak frequency is 5 minutes / trip, while if you have reserved a separate lane, the peak hour frequency must be 1-2 minutes / trip, ensuring the service capacity from 3,000-4,500 passengers / hour / direction, confirming the higher efficiency of using the road than conventional buses and private vehicles.
Thus, the current frequency and service capacity of the current “BRT 01” line is still very far from being able to meet the requirements of a true BRT line, not to be called public passenger transport with large volume.
Thus, if compared with the above criteria, the service operating on the current “BRT 01” route in Hanoi is actually only at the level of one bus route running on a partially dedicated lane (because it is still frequent). shared by private vehicles).
-Many experts, public opinion said that “BRT 01 line is a failed test”, what is your opinion?
– When judging as success or failure, it is necessary to evaluate carefully, explicitly and fairly. If assessing the current service, it is advisable to consider only the effectiveness of a bus service with a partial priority of road use, so that the conclusions of success or failure are true and from there it can be pointed out. the real cause of the problem.
In my opinion, the first reason is the slow pace, the investment is too slow, this BRT line should have been put into operation since about 2004-2005, when there was a demand for travel, urban structure along. the route (planned to be the Nguyen Trai – Tay Son route) was suitable for a BRT line.
The current BRT bus route in Hanoi is not exactly the nature of BRT bus
However, it was not until 2017 that the service was opened and the route was adjusted to Giang Vo – Le Van Luong – To Huu. With urban density, the need to travel along the corridor in 2017 is very different, even requiring us to have urban railway.
This is a pity, if the investment was completed early in the years 2004-2005, up to now, BRT has fulfilled its mission to transition to a form of mass transit rather than road. overhead iron, urban railway. This is also a valuable lesson in transport and urban planning and implementation.
12 years behind schedule, service delivery capacity is too weak, far from meeting BRT’s basic criteria. If we had reserved a separate lane for the BRT bus, we had to provide a worthy service capacity, exploiting the full traffic capacity of the lane. At the same time, to attract passengers and create a market for the BRT, it is necessary to create favorable travel connections for passengers, keeping the right of priority for the bus when operating in the lane, when crossing intersections. …
As for now, shared infrastructure (private vehicles often violate), although there are separate lanes, types of private vehicles, other vehicles massively occupy the BRT lane, but are rarely fined, causing BRT buses ” crawling “after other types of personal vehicles during rush hour.
Besides, the station is difficult to access, the sidewalk to connect from a regular bus stop to the BRT station is encroached upon … It can be said that “BRT line 01” is like an athlete who is tied and loved. the bridge competes in the top professional competition and when he fails to win a medal, he risks being disciplined.
– So, in your opinion, how must the Hanoi transport industry deal with this BRT 01 bus route?
– It is necessary to conduct the 5-year preliminary review, point out what is the problem, must be the people who really understand, need experts who really know, enthusiastic to evaluate.
We have to accept the fact that services now need to be complete to be able to meet BRT’s criteria. Therefore, I personally would like to have a comprehensive, fair assessment, so that the service on the line is truly a BRT bus service, after 1 year, we look back and can conclude that the BRT on that line. success, or failure, as at present, the conclusion is not satisfactory.
In particular, it is necessary to clearly define “whether to prioritize the use of infrastructure for public passenger transport”, and “what is the priority, what are the priority levels”, “Type and capacity of the service is worthy of priority”.
If it is confirmed that a BRT service complete with the above mentioned criteria can help reduce traffic congestion on the route, then improve it so that it becomes complete. But if we leave it as it is now, in the psychology of the people, the functional forces and experts alike, BRT buses cause more congestion than basis.
We keep saying priority is given to public passenger transport, but the practice is very modest.
Therefore, the people, the pressing public opinion is right, because the people have not seen a true type of public transport as expected, it is the real BRT service, great service capacity, good quality, punctuality, no “crawling turtles” follow private vehicles. When public transport is given priority, whoever uses public transport will have priority, while those using private vehicles will not have priority.
-The public also said that this BRT bus route is too expensive to invest, what is your comment?
– Hanoi BRT 01 line has a total investment of about 50 million USD, this bus is expensive because we have to import all, from consultants, design, to the smallest ones to have a model. Initial picture, sometimes that is the lesson.
For now, I believe, if Hanoi wants to deploy the next BRT lines it will definitely be much cheaper. The Vietnamese have the capacity to plan, manage, design and deliver a complete BRT service at a much lower cost.
– According to the plan, Hanoi has 8 BRT fast bus routes, so how do you think it should be effectively deployed in the future?
The first thing is to turn the current BRT 01 route into a BRT fast bus as its name suggests, and then confirm whether the BRT is suitable for developing and effectively serving the travel needs of Hanoi people or not. after that, this network expansion will be considered.
Moreover, since the proposed BRT network has been put into the planning for more than a decade, there has been a huge difference in travel demand, and urban development status along the corridor has also changed. very large, even much different from the approved urban planning.
Therefore, before deciding to stop or continue with the Hanoi BRT, we need to reevaluate current practice, analyze and forecast more comprehensively to update the capital planning until 2030 and with a vision to 2050 under study and construction.
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