Page 41 of 124
Re: News & Discussion: O-Bahn
Posted: Thu Sep 10, 2015 10:30 am
by bits
They dont need enough space to offload all passengers, just enough space to not crash in to the rear of the bus infront.
10 minute gaps is not even close to the distance they are running. Currently they go roughly 30secs to a minute apart at various times through out the day.
Even in off peak they can run close together often. It isnt like a train service where it is a single line with consistently exact run times.
Re: News & Discussion: O-Bahn
Posted: Thu Sep 10, 2015 11:09 am
by monotonehell
stumpjumper wrote:Good point about using only articulated buses. That seems to be the only way to increase seating capacity per vehicle.
I'd like some good information about the maximum frequency of buses on the track. I'm not a transport engineer, and my information came from a driver who told me that safety regulations require enough distance between buses not only to allow time for passengers to embark/disembark, but to ensure that if a bus stops on the track for any reason, there is time to get everyone off the bus and to a safe location alongside the track before another bus arrives. He said that in his opinion this distance should be at least ten minutes' worth. If that's correct, that's the spacing that sets the maximum number of buses on the track at any time.
There's not much information available - that I can find anyway - about the constraints on scheduling of these buses. It seems crucial to any consideration of spending more money on the service.
Either you misunderstood what he was saying, he was talking about trains or you should stop listening to him. None of that makes much sense.
OBahn busses do not stop on the track to allow passengers to embark / disembark. That's why there are stations, to allow the busses to pull off the track to let other busses pass.
If in an emergency a bus is running slow or halted on the track, an emergency light at its rear is activated and an emergency signal is broadcast to all busses by radio. The stopping distance is factored into the regulated spacing which is less than a minute. How long does it take to stop a bus travelling at up to 100Km/h? Definitely less than 100m including driver reaction time. Certainly nothing near 10 minutes.
The only thing that makes some sense is 10 minutes for evacuation time.
If you want some stats, here's a start. It was put together by a professor not a graphic designer so excuse the eye-rape. The small, bordered, red box at the very top is the Obahn's speed and capacity. The unbordered red bar further down is heavy rail. As you can see; the obahn runs at approximately twice the speed of heavy rail, and maxes out at around 8,000 peak directional capacity, while heavy rail starts in the same area but with added cars exceeds 30,000 peak directional capacity.
The OBahn track has seen good service for most of its 28 odd years, however in the past five years or so has become a rough ride. Not sure if this is because of the track's age or the new buses or a combination of both.
Re: News & Discussion: O-Bahn
Posted: Thu Sep 10, 2015 1:17 pm
by Torrens_5022
Conventional bus seats 40 - 45, Articulated 60 - 70, Bi-articulated 90? , Double decker 90, Light rail vehicle (Tram) 75. Trams hold the most people about 150. But would it be better well I mean cheaper in the long to just purchase bi-articulated buses, they could carry like 120 people over 7000 people an hour, the Seaford train line runs 10 trains an hour in peak, each train can seat 222, seating capacity of 2220, running 60 bi-articulated buses can seat 5400. Question is would it be cheaper to buy a fleet of bi-artics and have them running in a corridor o-bahn plus bus lanes then converting it to light rail?
The AutoTram Extra Grand
http://www.autotram.info/content/dam/au ... ng_Web.pdf
Also it's German so fits in with the o-bahn lol
Re: News & Discussion: O-Bahn
Posted: Thu Sep 10, 2015 1:50 pm
by monotonehell
Sehr scharf. But how fast does it go?
Re: News & Discussion: O-Bahn
Posted: Thu Sep 10, 2015 10:12 pm
by Torrens_5022
Does it matter how fast the bus is? once the tunnel is open, that would be 14km of uninterrupted busway / buslane, the bus would be capable of speeds over 60kph so 14 min travel time from TTP to City plus 2 min for passenger boarding = 16 min (max), which is extremely fast for a 14km bus / train / tram journey.
Re: News & Discussion: O-Bahn
Posted: Fri Sep 11, 2015 9:45 am
by monotonehell
Torrens_5022 wrote:Does it matter how fast the bus is?
yes
Re: News & Discussion: O-Bahn
Posted: Fri Sep 11, 2015 3:42 pm
by The Scooter Guy
monotonehell wrote:The OBahn track has seen good service for most of its 28 odd years, however in the past five years or so has become a rough ride. Not sure if this is because of the track's age or the new buses or a combination of both.
...or perhaps the lack of some kind of special track ballast or a special grinding vehicle.
Re: News & Discussion: O-Bahn
Posted: Fri Sep 11, 2015 11:41 pm
by bits
Just thinking about distance betwen buses.
Surely the buses can run closer than they would on a freeway even. There is only 1 dimension of direction for the bus so the drivers have much less ability to make a mistake, it is safer then freeway driving. 10 second gaps would be easy to manage.
And as we move to self driving vehicles in the next decade surely buses running the obahn are an easy process to automate.
Computers could run these buses almost bumper to bumper at 100km/h.
Re: News & Discussion: O-Bahn
Posted: Sat Sep 12, 2015 12:00 pm
by Goodsy
bits wrote:Just thinking about distance betwen buses.
Surely the buses can run closer than they would on a freeway even. There is only 1 dimension of direction for the bus so the drivers have much less ability to make a mistake, it is safer then freeway driving. 10 second gaps would be easy to manage.
And as we move to self driving vehicles in the next decade surely buses running the obahn are an easy process to automate.
Computers could run these buses almost bumper to bumper at 100km/h.
Self driving buses could easily drive bumper to bumper at 100km/h, but do you really think the
good people of Adelaide would allow self driving vehicles on our roads?
Re: News & Discussion: O-Bahn
Posted: Sun Sep 13, 2015 7:35 pm
by Brucetiki
Re: News & Discussion: O-Bahn
Posted: Sat Sep 26, 2015 6:31 pm
by Norman
Some new documents have been released regarding the urban design of the portals, parklands and Hackney Road:
Parklands Portal & Rejuvenation:
http://www.infrastructure.sa.gov.au/__d ... Report.PDF
Hackney Road:
http://www.infrastructure.sa.gov.au/__d ... e_Road.PDF
Re: News & Discussion: O-Bahn
Posted: Tue Oct 27, 2015 1:01 pm
by PeFe
From the ABC
-Bahn bus tunnel contract awarded to McConnell Dowell, which pledges 90pc local workforce
construction workforce for Adelaide's bus tunnel project will be 90 per cent South Australian, the company involved has said.
Key points
Bus tunnel workforce to be 90pc local
Construction to start before Christmas
Project due for completion late 2017
McConnell Dowell has been awarded the contract for the $160 million O-Bahn project, Transport and Infrastructure Minister Stephen Mullighan has announced.
The South Australian Government recently made clear it would give preference to tenders that promised to use a high percentage of local workers.
McConnell Dowell pledged nine out of 10 workers on the city parklands tunnel would be locals, with state manager Peter Fraser saying the project would provide a chance to strengthen the company's local skills base.
"We're targeting as a minimum 90 per cent of local participation, local companies etcetera, and where we need to bring in specialist people to do the design work or the construction work, the intent is to transfer those skills, so that by the end of the project we'll have a core team in South Australia which is even more competent than we have already," he said.
Mr Mullighan said he expected the bus tunnel work to generate more than 450 jobs, with a start to be made by Christmas and the project due for completion in late 2017.
The initial tunnel plan was revised by the State Government after a vocal campaign from some city residents and businesses about the possible impact on the parklands.
The tunnel was lengthened and a plan to close off Rundle Road was abandoned.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-10-26/o ... ge/6884864
Re: News & Discussion: O-Bahn
Posted: Thu Oct 29, 2015 7:51 pm
by The Scooter Guy
PeFe wrote:From the ABC
-Bahn bus tunnel contract awarded to McConnell Dowell, which pledges 90pc local workforce
construction workforce for Adelaide's bus tunnel project will be 90 per cent South Australian, the company involved has said.
Key points
Bus tunnel workforce to be 90pc local
Construction to start before Christmas
Project due for completion late 2017
McConnell Dowell has been awarded the contract for the $160 million O-Bahn project, Transport and Infrastructure Minister Stephen Mullighan has announced.
The South Australian Government recently made clear it would give preference to tenders that promised to use a high percentage of local workers.
McConnell Dowell pledged nine out of 10 workers on the city parklands tunnel would be locals, with state manager Peter Fraser saying the project would provide a chance to strengthen the company's local skills base.
"We're targeting as a minimum 90 per cent of local participation, local companies etcetera, and where we need to bring in specialist people to do the design work or the construction work, the intent is to transfer those skills, so that by the end of the project we'll have a core team in South Australia which is even more competent than we have already," he said.
Mr Mullighan said he expected the bus tunnel work to generate more than 450 jobs, with a start to be made by Christmas and the project due for completion in late 2017.
The initial tunnel plan was revised by the State Government after a vocal campaign from some city residents and businesses about the possible impact on the parklands.
The tunnel was lengthened and a plan to close off Rundle Road was abandoned.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-10-26/o ... ge/6884864
So it's business as usual for Kadlitpina & Rymill Parks during these works.
Re: News & Discussion: O-Bahn
Posted: Thu Nov 19, 2015 2:36 pm
by I Follow PAFC
First look at new O-Bahn tunnel images: 60m-long, 6m high steel canopy for Hackney Rd as part of $160m O-Bahn tunnel project.
THE first designs for the O-Bahn tunnel openings on Rymill Park and Hackney Rd have been released and not everyone is happy with them.
A 60m-long, 6m tall steel canopy will be built in the middle Hackney Rd as part of the $160 million O-Bahn tunnel project.
A second 20m-long canopy will be constructed in Rymill Park, near Grenfell St, designs released this week reveal.
http://www.news.com.au/national/south-a ... 00d64079fc
Re: News & Discussion: O-Bahn
Posted: Thu Nov 19, 2015 2:48 pm
by monotonehell
THE first designs for the O-Bahn tunnel openings on Rymill Park and Hackney Rd have been released and not everyone is happy with them.
Or conversely ...
THE first designs for the O-Bahn tunnel openings on Rymill Park and Hackney Rd have been released and only two people are unhappy with them.
This project is nowhere near designed yet. There's still a lot of unanswered engineering problems. Nothing structural, just designs surrounding things like the proposed safety measures, monitoring networks, CCTV system, traffic control system, automated signs / barriers at the ends and so on. This is going to be one high-tech trench.
That is; they've done the broad strokes, but have yet to fill in all the detail.