Locale Istanbul Number of stations 45 Website Metrobus | Number of lines 1 Daily ridership 800,000 | |
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Transit type Bus rapid transit (BRT) | ||
Metrobus (Turkish: Metrobüs) is a 50 km (31.1 mi) bus rapid transit route in İstanbul, Turkey with 45 stations which follows the city's ring-road via Avcılar, Zincirlikuyu and the Bosphorus Bridge to Söğütlüçeşme using dedicated bus lanes for much of the route.
Contents
- Planning and construction
- Operation
- Route
- Lines
- Proposed developments
- Reliability of Phileas buses
- Stations and route stopping patterns
- References
The busway, the first section of which opened in 2007 after two years of construction, is used by a number of Metrobus lines which operate within this ‘closed’ system carrying 800,000 people daily. The Turkish authorities have since assisted with the development of a similar system in Lahore, Pakistan, which opened in 2013. The name Metrobüs was coined by the transit agency to suggest that this system is a hybrid between a metro train (Turkish: metro) and a bus (Turkish: otobüs).
Planning and construction
Construction of the first section of the busway, between Avcılar (serving Istanbul University's Avcılar campus) and Topkapı started in 2005.
Operation
The busway opened on September 17, 2007. It was then extended in an easterly direction from Topkapı to Zincirlikuyu, and then from Zincirlikuyu to Söğütlüçeşme, which is on the Anatolian side of Istanbul. In 2012, it was extended from Avcılar to a western residential suburb, Beylikdüzü.
Route
The busway is approximately 50 km (31 mi) in length and has 45 stations, with one lane each direction following Istanbul's main highway .
The system mainly follows the city's ringroad, with a fully separated right-of-way between Avcılar and Zincirlikuyu and between the eastern end of the Bosphorus Bridge and Söğütlüçeşme. There are no intersections with a dedicated bus lane in each direction with few passing lanes. Buses drive on the left-hand side of the bus lane, so that their doors, designed for conventional operation with door to the right-hand side of the vehicle, open onto the bidirectional central platforms. Most services operate only with the ‘closed’ BRT system however.
The following table shows the interval between buses (headway) for each of three sections of the line for vehicles traveling in an easterly direction; intervals for buses in the other direction are similar.
Times above shown as 'minutes:seconds'
Lines
There are six main services, each operating on different sub-sections of the route, and also the infrequent 34G, a 'night service', which operates over the full length for the busway.
Table showing the number of trips made by different lines using the busway
Proposed developments
At the eastern end, a new extension to Göztepe is planned.
Reliability of Phileas buses
It has been suggested that Phileas buses, which are now rarely used, were underpowered and not strong enough to carry heavy passenger loads and climb steep hills typical in Istanbul, though the hillclimbing aspect of this perception does not appear to have much evidential basis. IETT's stated loading capacity (no. of people) for the buses was considerably higher than that of the manufacturer The Phileas buses were designed with the capacity to use an electronic guided bus system. The one-way Metrobus lanes become blocked whenever a bus breaks down causing delays for the buses in that direction.
The makers of the Phileas buses’ APTS’ were taken to court in 2010 by IETT over the failures. An official investigation was launched by the government with the company.
Stations and route stopping patterns
Shaded boxes indicate route operates from the station.
- 34 (Avcılar - Zincirlikuyu)
- 34A (Söğütlüçeşme - Cevizlibağ AÖY)
- 34AS (Avcılar - Söğütlüçeşme)
- 34BZ (Beylikdüzü - Zincirlikuyu)
- 34C (Beylikdüzü - Cevizlibağ)
- 34G (Beylikdüzü - Söğütlüçeşme) (Only Night)(G = Gece = Night)(22.00/06.00)
- 34U (Uzunçayır - Zincirlikuyu)
- 34Z (Zincirlikuyu - Söğütlüçeşme)