Long-time CC readers may remember our post on Pittsburgh’s “Skybus” – an early attempt at an elevated busway that, unfortunately, didn’t pan out. Here in the Japanese city of Nagoya, a similar system has been in service for the past twenty-two years – and its future continues to look bright.
First, let’s take a look at why Nagoya chose this option. Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) is now one of the more successful alternatives to increasing both the speed and capacity of urban transit. But it requires sufficient space for a dedicated bus through-way. Japan’s constricted roads, with structures built right up to the curb in many places, makes it difficult to find space for these bus-only lanes. So like with many other things in Japan when it comes to space and geography, if you can’t “go out, go up.”
The entire line consists of both elevated and regular street sections – the elevated section is 6.5 kilometers long and has nine stations. The dark blue line on the map denotes the elevated portion.
The current bus used is a Hino “Blue Ribbon City” – one of the more popular urban transit models in Japan. It uses a parallel hybrid powertrain with a four cylinder Hino diesel combined with a 90 kw electric motor. As it’s a low-floor model, batteries are stored on the roof. Length is 10.5 meters and a width of 2.5. Twenty-two passengers can be seated and another 53 standing. This bus is manufactured jointly with Isuzu.
Before entering the busway, guide wheels deploy just in front of the front wheels. The driver only operates the throttle. Buses can reach a top speed of 60 kph on the elevated portion.
Here’s the entry/exit point.
Next trip to Nagoya I’m planning on taking a ride.
I visited Nagoya a few times, the last about 12 years ago. I don’t recall seeing the elevated bus line. Perhaps I walked under it and though it was just another elevated expressway!
Any Curbsider visiting Nagoya should set aside the better part of a day to go through the Toyota Commemorative Museum of Industry and Technology. Half of the museum is about textile manufacturing, which is where Toyota got its start. The other half is about making cars. It’s like a factory tour you can take at your own pace.
Only one time for me…26 years ago. Flew to San Francisco, recall the next leg had lots of people from Georgetown Ky going to visit Toyota…I was eventually too, but I was on business trying to figure out a problem my company was having at Toyota that we couldn’t reproduce at home, we did eventually, but eventually had to go into Toyota to convince them that the problem would NOT recur in the next product we were working on (which they were interested in buying).
We were working at the branch office in Toyota City, but had one day “off” (we’d found the problem and people back in my home city were working on a work-around) but on our own. We found our way back into Nagoya by train, though we were functionally illiterate we managed to pattern recognize and count stops (thank goodness they didn’t skip a stop…we’d have been sunk.) We found a shop that sold piece parts the like I’ve never seen in the US…you could buy fibre optic cable, ball bearings, etc, kind of like a hardware store for hobbyists.
At one point we almost got on the wrong train, a person overhearing our conversation and figuring out that we were intending to go back to Toyota City was nice enough to straighten us out before we made the error.
My friend in the US is half Japanese, his Mother was in Hiroshima when they dropped the atomic bomb (fortunately far enough away to survive of course). He told me about Okonomiyaki, which his Mother made for him. I asked the desk of the hotel we were staying at if there was a place that made it, they directed us to one; and I convinced my co-worker to go and try it. We’re illiterate, couldn’t decipher the hiragana, I told him we’d simply pick a number and hope for the best. Both of us liked it such that we tried to return the next day (a Thursday) but for some reason the shop was closed (maybe it was their day off).
Anyway, the branch office was very appreciative of our efforts, they even bought us a box lunch to take on the bus back to Nagoya…we took one of the Shinkansen to Shinyokahama as we had to go to the branch office before returning to the US.
I’m a fan of coach buses but this intercity looks great.
Congratulations to the japanese.
Very interesting, thanks, it instantly reminds me of Disneyland’s Autopia but with side guides instead of the center one. And far cleaner than the old two-strokes they use(d)…
The guided part aspect is what interests me most, a normal elevated road would serve the same purpose but perhaps would need to be wider to provide the driver more “wiggle room” and have more protective elements such as larger barriers if I’m understanding it correctly. We have a dedicated bus road here in Fort Collins for a sort of express bus (the MAX) that has its own (dedicated) roadway (not elevated) but is wider and not elevated next to some train tracks. This causes havoc at times as within a very short distance the perpendicular traffic has to contend with an active train crossing, a bus crossing, and then a regular traffic-light intersections just next to it as well and another less than a couple hundred yards away. So potentially four items crossing all with a short distance, none of which are really synced up in any noticeable fashion.
As a transit fan it’s now on the list when/if we get to Nagoya, the one in Tokyo that comes the closest that we rode on recently was the “New Shuttle” out by the Railway Museum, which is more of a tram/train on tires, perhaps most analagous to some U.S. airport inter-terminal shuttle systems.
And far cleaner than the old two-strokes they use(d)…
This threw me a bit, as I distinctly remember the putt-putt of four strokes. Turns out there have been three generations of engines in these, and now they’re going electric. The first generation used a 4-stroke built by Gladdon Industries, which was also used in their line of Mustang small-scale motorcycles. 318cc and 7.5 hp. That’s what I remember during my days of getting into Disneyland for free, on my press pass between 1978 and 1984 or so.
Sometime after that, they were replaced by a Kawasaki 2-stroke. And they were replaced in 2008 by a Honda 4-stroke. So I’m guessing you went during the Kawasaki era.
My first visit was October ’77, then multiple times in the ’80s, several times in the 90s and 00s, and my last visit was probably about 8 or 9 years ago. So I’ve likely sampled all of the engines… I do recall ALL of them being somewhat fumey beasts, but perhaps the 2-stroke era really stuck in my head…breathing exhaust fumes doesn’t excite me the way it used to. Now I wonder how long they used leaded gasoline and if it was later than 1992 when it was banned for on-road use – however aviation fuel can still use lead until 2031 in CA it appears so I wonder about the ride and its fuel, since it obviously isn’t/wasn’t on public roads…
Jim, a great profile of a unique transit solution to traffic congestion. I like it, well thought out. The video was recorded during off peak midday, not a true test of the system’s efficiency. As I find the buses small, and seating capacity limited, for a best transit experience for riders during rush hour. Most people can expect to be standing during the busy periods.
Also, as a rider I find there are more steps to board and exit than ideal, unlike most flat floor low floor buses. A shortcoming of the bus choice, not the system. The sharp curve heading into the station is unfortunate. Slows the buses, and passengers will lean into each other. This raised road system could work in locations that get snow. Would require, added maintenance.
With refinement, I could see a system like this, efficiently serving larger cities. Without the need to go underground.
Above ground seems unlikely to ever get approval in many cities, at least in California. Shadowing local streets and residences. Earthquake risks. And sadly, the area under the elevated structures invariably becomes a homeless community. As roadways at least, they have been demolished and replaced with ground level roads (or just not replaced at all) in San Francisco and Oakland in the last few decades.
Seems like a perfect solution for Japan’s dense cities. And with pure-battery EV buses becoming more common and practical, it rather takes away the one main advantage of light rail, while obviously being a lot cheaper. As well as its ability to drive in traffic too.
Bogota, Colombia has a very extensive BRT system using segregated and elevated road surfaces. It is called “Transmilenio”. Bogota is huge but it does not have a metro rail system. The next largest Colombian city, Medellin, does have a rail based metro system but Bogota does not and uses only busses.
Jim – I know that parallel N/S bus/train/College Drive situation in Fort Collins. It is real intimidating to get through that on a bicycle, especially down around Drake Road and CSU.
I have ridden this, and it was great, excepting the need to climb stairs or ride an elevator up to the station, which was really no problem at all. You can take this to get to the Nagoya Dome, where the Chunichi Dragons baseball team playa. The Toyota museum as mentioned is fantastic. There is another Toyota museum a bit farther from downtown that concentrates solely on the cars. Other interesting attractions include the Nagoya Castle, the Tokigawa Art Museum/Garden, the Norotake Ceramics complex, and railway/SC Maglev museum. Soon there will be a Maglev train from Tokyo to Nagoya, schedul2d for 2027!
Intriguing idea, though arguably limited to a peculiarly Japanese city streetscape (that is, where aesthetics just have to come second to the sheer pressures of accomadating, and moving, so many people).
I live in a city that (I’m told) still has the world’s largest tram network, and I do really love trams, but – whisper it – they’re quite often not the most practical things in the world. Fact is, they can be so easily blocked and delayed by that Camry whose bumper is a half-inch over the space needed, or that turning Porsche. And they can take a lot of time to disgorge (or engorge) folk from road centre to sidewalk. Buses don’t really have these issues: trolleybuses neither, and where it’s really impossible, elevation makes a lot of sense.
Wonder why the elevated bits of this network in Nagoya don’t have pantographs etc for on-the move PHEV-style recharging? Likely the economics don’t add up, I guess.
Does anyone know if this uses the licensed German design the same as Adelaide, South Australia’s O’Bahn buses?
None of the sources I reviewed for the post mentioned the specific type of guide-wheel used – but in looking at the O-Bahn buses, they look very similar and the description of how they operate is the same also.
In general the dedicated bus system makes much more sense for subway in cities, it is much cheaper to build and maintain. But subway and other dedicated rail lines are much more popular. In this country, New York City has its famous and infamous subway system, and virtually no dedicated bus only road except a section of Staten Island and Brooklyn-Queen Express Way sharing the HOV lane, and recently there are bus only lanes on some streets to prevent other cars getting into the way of the bus, car drivers are not happy about because it adds further congestion on the roads, you may also get a ticket for getting into the bus lane if its camera catches your car. And LA Metro J Line is another dedicated system very similar to the New York Transit, but it has its own dedicated bus stations. North York of Ontario has the system very close to the Nagoya one. But this type of system is not new. Brazilian city, Curitiba, has this for over four decades. Its original justification was much cheaper than subway and light rail.
Many similarities to the Cambridge Guided Busway (also known as the Misguided Bus as budget overspends and contractual issues on the build) in the UK. It links the edge of city park and ride carpark, the main hospital, rail station and city centre and goes on to the next town St Ives as well. Much of it is built on an old railway line, hence the tight bridges sin some areas that only single deck buses can access.