Fastrack
Encyclopedia
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Bus rapid transit
Bus rapid transit is a term applied to a variety of public transportation systems using buses to provide faster, more efficient service than an ordinary bus line. Often this is achieved by making improvements to existing infrastructure, vehicles and scheduling...
scheme operating in the Thames Gateway
Thames Gateway
The Thames Gateway is an area of land stretching east from inner east London on both sides of the River Thames and the Thames Estuary. The area, which includes much brownfield land, has been designated a national priority for urban regeneration, taking advantage of the development opportunities...
area of Kent
Kent
Kent is a county in southeast England, and is one of the home counties. It borders East Sussex, Surrey and Greater London and has a defined boundary with Essex in the middle of the Thames Estuary. The ceremonial county boundaries of Kent include the shire county of Kent and the unitary borough of...
. It currently consists of two routes operated by Arriva Southern Counties
Arriva Southern Counties
Arriva Southern Counties is a bus operator in London, Surrey, West Sussex, East Sussex, Kent and Essex in England. It is a regional division of Arriva.- History :...
on behalf of Kent County Council
Kent County Council
Kent County Council is the county council that governs the majority of the county of Kent in England. It provides the upper tier of local government, below which are 12 district councils, and around 300 town and parish councils. The county council has 84 elected councillors...
. Various measures are used to allow Fastrack vehicles to avoid traffic, including signal priority, reserved lanes, and dedicated busways.
The fleet consists of 26 Volvo B7RLE
Volvo B7RLE
Volvo B7RLE is a low-floor single-deck citybus launched initially in Australia in 2001, and then in the United Kingdom in 2003 to supplement the B7L single-decker, which was unsuccessful in both countries. It is similar to the B7L's predecessor, the B10BLE...
vehicles with Wright Eclipse Urban
Wright Eclipse
The Wright Eclipse is a low-floor single-deck bus body built by Wright on Volvo B7 chassis. It shares its design with the Wright Solar on Scania L94 chassis....
bodywork. They are equipped with passenger information screens, voice announcements and CCTV. As ridership increases, it is intended that these buses will give way to ‘intermediate mode vehicles’, longer articulated vehicles with tram-like appearance, such as the Wright StreetCar
Wright StreetCar
The Wright StreetCar is an articulated bus developed by Wrightbus and Volvo Buses for FirstGroup. It consists of an adapted Volvo B7LA chassis, featuring a separate driver compartment at the front, resembling to some extent similar designs in continental Europe.They feature air-conditioning and a...
. Flexibility is one of Kent County Council’s principal goals in the development of Fastrack, so conversion to tram
Tram
A tram is a passenger rail vehicle which runs on tracks along public urban streets and also sometimes on separate rights of way. It may also run between cities and/or towns , and/or partially grade separated even in the cities...
s, trolleybus
Trolleybus
A trolleybus is an electric bus that draws its electricity from overhead wires using spring-loaded trolley poles. Two wires and poles are required to complete the electrical circuit...
es or guided bus
Guided bus
Guided buses are buses steered for part or all of their route by external means, usually on a dedicated track. This track, which often parallels existing roads, excludes other traffic, permitting the maintenance of reliable schedules on heavily used corridors even during rush hours.Guidance systems...
es is not being considered.
The Fastrack network is currently split into three fare zones, with short-hop tickets available for £1 on short journeys. Tickets are sold by the driver, but passengers can also buy tickets from roadside machines at certain bus stops in order to allow for faster boarding.
M-tickets - bus tickets on your mobile phone - were successfully trialled on Fastrack in early 2009 and are now available across the Arriva
Arriva Southern Counties
Arriva Southern Counties is a bus operator in London, Surrey, West Sussex, East Sussex, Kent and Essex in England. It is a regional division of Arriva.- History :...
bus network.
Routes
Fastrack began operating with the introduction of Fastrack B on 26 March 2006 between DartfordDartford
Dartford is the principal town in the borough of Dartford. It is situated in the northwest corner of Kent, England, east south-east of central London....
and Gravesend
Gravesend, Kent
Gravesend is a town in northwest Kent, England, on the south bank of the Thames, opposite Tilbury in Essex. It is the administrative town of the Borough of Gravesham and, because of its geographical position, has always had an important role to play in the history and communications of this part of...
, serving Darent Valley Hospital
Darent Valley Hospital
Darent Valley Hospital is a 478 bed, acute district general hospital in Dartford, Kent, England.The hospital has an Emergency Department alongside an Urgent Care Centre....
, Bluewater, Greenhithe railway station
Greenhithe railway station
Greenhithe railway station serves the village of Greenhithe in north Kent and Bluewater Shopping Centre. Train services are operated by Southeastern.-Design:...
(and Ebbsfleet International
Ebbsfleet International railway station
Ebbsfleet International railway station is a railway station in Ebbsfleet Valley, in the Borough of Dartford, Kent, 10 miles outside the eastern boundary of Greater London, England. It is near Dartford and the Bluewater shopping centre to the west and Gravesend to the east. Ebbsfleet International...
since it opened in November 2007). It operates up to a ten-minute frequency. Services start before 6am and run until after midnight.
The 9.5 km (5.9 mi) long Fastrack A was added to the network on 3 June 2007. It operates up to every seven minutes between Dartford and Bluewater along the western side of Temple Hill
Temple Hill, Kent
Temple Hill is a suburb of Dartford in Kent, England. It takes its name from the Knights Templar order....
, Crossways Business Park, Greenhithe railway station
Greenhithe railway station
Greenhithe railway station serves the village of Greenhithe in north Kent and Bluewater Shopping Centre. Train services are operated by Southeastern.-Design:...
and The Bridge, Dartford. Fastrack A is funded by ProLogis, the developers of The Bridge, Dartford.
It is hoped that Fastrack C, a circular route in the Bluewater / Greenhithe
Greenhithe
Greenhithe is a town in Dartford District of Kent, England. It forms part of the civil parish of Swanscombe and Greenhithe.Greenhithe, as it is spelled today, is located where it was possible to build wharves for transshipping corn, wood and other commodities; its largest cargoes were of chalk and...
area, and Fastrack D, running from Bluewater to Gravesend via Northfleet, will come into service in the future.
Route changes
Prior to the opening of Ebbsfleet International in November 2007, Fastrack B ran through Northfleet
Northfleet
Northfleet is a town in the Borough of Gravesham in Kent, England. Its name is derived from North creek , and the settlement on the shore of the River Thames adjacent to Gravesend was known as Norfluet in the Domesday Book, and Northflet in 1201...
. The diversion along Thames Way to the new international rail station, which now offers Eurostar
Eurostar
Eurostar is a high-speed railway service connecting London with Paris and Brussels. All its trains traverse the Channel Tunnel between England and France, owned and operated separately by Eurotunnel....
, domestic and High Speed services, added 2 km (1¼ mi) of junction priority and segregated lanes to the network. Northfleet is still served by conventional Arriva routes 480 and 490, running up to every ten minutes.
For the first four months of operation Route A ran on a temporary alignment via Junction 1a of the M25
M25 motorway
The M25 motorway, or London Orbital, is a orbital motorway that almost encircles Greater London, England, in the United Kingdom. The motorway was first mooted early in the 20th century. A few sections, based on the now abandoned London Ringways plan, were constructed in the early 1970s and it ...
to link The Bridge, Dartford, development site with Crossways Business Park. From 30 September 2007 it was diverted via a dedicated Fastrack bridge over the Dartford toll plaza and under the QE2 Bridge of the Dartford Crossing
Dartford Crossing
The Dartford - Thurrock River Crossing, Dartford River Crossing is a major road crossing of the River Thames in England, connecting Dartford in the south to Thurrock in the north, via two road tunnels and the Queen Elizabeth II Bridge. It opened in stages, the west tunnel in 1963, the east tunnel...
. With the opening of this bridge Fastrack A avoids a congestion hotspot, allowing the original six minute peak frequency to be improved to five minutes.
Since 2010 it has been hoped that Everards Link Phase 2 would link Greenhithe railway station with the Ingress Park housing development via a stretch of Fastrack-only busway. However, this extension is currently held up due to subsidence in a key cut-and-cover tunnel threatening historic Ingress Park Lodge.
Accident
On 9 January 2008 a Fastrack B vehicle was involved in an accident that resulted in the death of an 11-year-old boy near Princes Road, Dartford.See also
- List of guided busways and BRT systems in the United Kingdom
- List of bus operators of the United Kingdom
- Crawley FastwayCrawley FastwayFastway is a bus rapid transit network linking Crawley with Gatwick Airport and Horley, the first to be constructed outside a major city. It uses specially adapted buses that can either be steered by the driver or operate as "self steering" guided buses along a specially constructed track...
, a similar-sized guided system