Area Contract (Gross Cost) / Infrastructure Requirements / Bus Stations and Terminals

Bus Stations and Terminals
A bus terminal, or terminus, is the point where a bus route starts or ends, where vehicles stop, turn or reverse, and wait before departing on their return journeys. It’s also where passengers board and alight from vehicles. It also often provides a convenient point where services can be controlled from.

The size and nature of a terminal may vary, from a roadside bus stop with no facilities for passengers or bus crews, to a purpose built off-road bus station offering a wide range of facilities.

If the number of vehicles arriving and departing is low, a roadside bus stop, with no facilities, will normally be adequate. With a large number of vehicles arriving and departing, it may be necessary to provide off-road bus station facilities for the convenience of passengers and to reduce traffic congestion.

Terminals versus stations
Although the terms bus terminal and bus station tend to be used synonymously, the latter is normally more correct since in most cases there are some routes which pass through the station without terminating there.

The term bus station is normally used to refer to an off-road location with at least basic facilities for passengers, while a terminal may be a fully equipped bus station but might equally be merely a point in the road.

In many cities the majority of passengers start and end their journeys at bus stations, and a significant proportion of operators’ revenue may be collected at these points.

Stations and terminals are important elements
Bus stations and terminals are a significant element in the operation of bus services. Their design and location affect the efficiency of a transport system, and its impact on other road users. Some stations are regarded more as landmarks than as utilities, and as such are often of prestigious rather than practical design, which may detract seriously from their efficiency.

Local bus services in many towns and cities are centered on bus stations. Often there are large stations in the central area, with smaller ones at the outer ends of the routes. There may also be intermediate stations, especially at points where many passengers interchange between different bus routes, although most intermediate passengers on urban services board and alight at roadside bus stops.

Bus stations may also be used for parking between journeys for buses which are away from their home bases. But they should not normally be regarded as long‑term parking facilities, particularly in locations where land is expensive. When they are not required for loading, buses should be parked elsewhere, preferably at depots where there are facilities for vehicle servicing and cleaning. Buses should not normally be permitted to park in streets adjacent to bus stations.

Efficient systems limit bus time at stations
If buses are utilized efficiently, it should not be necessary for them to spend much more time at bus stations than is required for loading and unloading. The requirement to park large numbers of buses for long periods between trips is often a reflection of inefficiency or excess capacity in the industry. Although it may be unavoidable at off-peak times if there is a significant difference between peak and off-peak service levels.

In practice it is necessary to achieve a realistic compromise with regard to parking at bus stations. While it’s expensive to provide parking space at city centre terminals, it can also be expensive and inefficient for buses to be driven for long distances to remote parking areas, particularly if traffic congestion is a serious problem.

It may be appropriate for bus operators to be charged for parking on a time basis to discourage them from parking their vehicles for too long. Calculating these charges should take into account the cost of providing parking facilities. But it should not be so high that it encourages operators to park their vehicles elsewhere when this would be uneconomic or undesirable not only to the operator but to the community.

Locating bus stations for urban services
It’s essential that stations are not only constructed to a suitable design and with adequate capacity, but also that they are suitably located.

There are a number of considerations in deciding the best location. The location should be where routes should logically connect or terminate, as determined by passenger demand patterns. If the station is used as an intermediate stopping point on routes passing through, it should be conveniently located for passengers joining or leaving vehicles.

Sometimes the location of stations for different classes of vehicles is influenced by the catchment areas of the passengers. For example, the majority of people using air conditioned buses may live in a different part of the city from those using standard services.

An efficient urban bus route network in any medium or large city will inevitably require a large number of terminal points, not only at the ends of each route but at various intermediate points where some vehicles may turn short.

Simple terminal points do the job
It would be both uneconomic and unnecessary to construct large complex terminal facilities at all of these points. In the majority of cases all that is required is the facility for vehicles to turn, without obstructing or endangering other traffic, and sufficient space at the curb or alongside the road for a reasonable number of vehicles to stand between journeys.

It’s often appropriate, where the road layout permits, for buses to follow a loop round the block at the end of the route, standing between journeys at a roadside stop at some point in the loop, or immediately before or after it.

Similarly, bus stations en route will be required only where demand justifies their provision. As a guide, an off-street bus station may be justifiable if the number of buses standing simultaneously loading, unloading or waiting to depart regularly exceeds 10 or 12, although much will depend on the road layout, and the volume of other traffic. If the road is very wide and there is little traffic, roadside bus stops may cater adequately for up to five buses loading simultaneously on each side of the road.

If suitable off-street terminal sites are not available it’s usually preferable for routes to terminate on-street, even in central areas, rather than for terminals to be sited at inconvenient locations.

Efficient routing minimizes the need for terminals
Efficient routing can minimize the number of routes which must terminate in busy central areas, while efficient scheduling and regulation of departures can minimize vehicle waiting times. Provided there is no excess capacity in the system, no more than two or three vehicles on any one route need be waiting at the central terminal point at any time, so that disruption to traffic can be minimized.

Where bus stations are required, they should be located near to points of high demand for maximum passenger convenience. The location of stations is often determined primarily by the availability of sites, and as a result they are often in inappropriate locations, causing inconvenience to passengers using them, and increasing vehicle operating costs by increasing the distances traveled.

Central area terminals can create congestion
In many cities there are one or more terminal bus stations in the central area. If there is a single central bus terminal, this is convenient for passengers interchanging between routes. However, if there are very many bus movements a single terminal may be impractical, requiring a very large area of land, and creating congestion both within the station itself and on surrounding streets. In large cities, there are often several terminals, usually located around the periphery of the central area.

Where there are several central terminals, there are normally different terminals serving different groups of routes or destinations. Each terminal should ideally be located close to the corridor served by its group of routes. This minimizes the number of buses crossing the central area and reduces traffic congestion caused by buses. But it may mean that the majority of passengers must walk some distance into the centre to complete their journeys, and passengers interchanging between routes may be seriously inconvenienced by having to walk from one terminal to another.

An alternative is to allocate routes to terminals in such a way that every route crosses the city centre before reaching its terminal. This may increase passenger convenience, but may also increase the level of traffic congestion, and requires a greater number of buses to provide an equivalent service.

While urban bus services are often severely hampered by traffic congestion, the buses themselves may also contribute to congestion in the city. In particular, city centre bus terminals can cause severe traffic congestion through the concentration of buses arriving and departing. This is particularly so where buses load at the curbside rather than in off-street bus stations.

Operating from suburb to suburb can decrease congestion
The congestion caused by buses terminating in central areas can be alleviated by linking bus routes so that the majority operate across the city from one outer suburb to another, stopping in the central area for no longer than is necessary to set down and pick up passengers. All terminal points will be outside the central area. This means less disruption is caused to other traffic and there is likely to be more space for buses to stand for long periods, as may be necessary at off-peak times.

Additional advantages from this type of operation are that bus utilization may be improved by reducing the number of times when a bus has to turn. Additional links are also provided for passengers whose journeys take them across the city centre.

A potential disadvantage is irregularity of services, caused by eliminating the opportunity to compensate for traffic delays by adjusting layover times at central terminal points. Although such delays may be reduced through minimizing bus-induced congestion.

Where routes are linked to operate across the city centre, there can be a benefit in providing facilities for passengers to interchange between routes. These facilities may take the form of purpose-built off-road facilities, or roadside bus stops with shelters, perhaps linked by pedestrian bridges or subways.

With these kinds of facilities, the location should not require buses to deviate significantly from their routes; otherwise much of the benefit of operating through services is lost. However, with appropriate routing, it should be unnecessary for the majority of passengers to transfer between bus routes in the city centre, and extensive interchange facilities should not be required.

Off-street bus stations in city centers are, in any case, often a wasteful use of expensive land, although this may be offset by the development of property above the station.