All across Europe, new urban bus schemes of high quality are being implemented. These are known as BHLS – “Bus with High Level of Service”. They are not necessarily “new solutions” or some innovative form of transport looking for a market. Many BHLS systems restore the efficiency buses had for most of the 20th Century when there were no congestion problems. They improve the network attractivity with the addition of significant investment in system reliability, customer support and marketing.
BHLS is a very important response to decades of systematic neglect of the bus mode. It provides a toolbox of relatively modest, cost effective measures that can be deployed in the biggest or smallest urban areas. It does not always require a very large capital investment, and it blends good operational practice with appropriate technologies.
This report presents the synthesis of 4 years of exchanges between 14 European countries about their BHLS experiences.
The objectives were shortly: