‘ftr’ shows BRT is VFM

As the Eagles song goes, “Johnny come lately, the new kid in town, everybody loves you…”

That new kid is ftr – or First’s Future Project. Is it a tram? Is it a train? No, it’s a bus – sort of.

Last week, York city council and First officially unveiled the partnership that would see England’s first ftr scheme, from 8 May. They jointly called it “ground breaking” and “state-of-the-art”. Along with a clutch of Wright Streetcars on the service 4 between Acomb, York & University, there will be GPS, stopside improvements, so-called Cityspace Columns with more-than-real-time-information and the promise of prioritised junctions, especially for late running vehicles.

What is ftr?

 It stands for FuTuRe.
 It's an articualted bus that rather looks like a tram.
 It’s First’s vision for bus based rapid transit.
 It’s a Volvo B7LA articulated bus with Wright Streetcar body.
 At 18.75m, it’s longer than your average 18m artic, the permitted dimensions having recently increased.
 The concept was announced in September 2004 with the prototype going on show in February 2005.

Will it come to a street near you?

Not unless your local authority is happy to work in partnership with First. First’s made it clear that ftr will only appear where the conditions are right. Swansea in Wales and Leeds are likely to be next, and there’s been interest in Bath, Bristol and others besides.

Is frt VFM?

ftr is an example of the newly coined Bus Rapid Transit, or BRT. Is ftr’s version of BRT Value for Money? It is, compared to Light Rapid/Rail Transit (LRT). Croner’s February Bus & Coach Briefing suggests a 7km LRT corridor might total £160mil. BRT in the form of ftr might cost just £14.5mil. All costs include vehicles and for LRT the track, and BRT extensive guideway and priorities. Ftr in its original form was destined to be kerb-guided.

Will it get people out of their cars?

That’s the $64,000 question. BRT certainly offers many of the advantages of a tram system, including similar stopping arrangements, levels of service and the same sort of running times. Looking again to Croner, the Leeds/First Superbus guided busway, in place since 1995, passenger growth was of the order of 75 per cent, in two & a half years. So, yes, the prospects are good.

Again, in the words of the same Eagles song. “Great expectations, everybody's watching you.” Let’s trust that “They will never forget you 'til somebody new comes along.”