What is GRT?

Bus Rapid Transit

Bus Rapid Transit is a new form of mass transit which is often referred to as a kind of 'surface metro'. BRT can provide a metro-like level of service to passengers in terms of speed, capacity, reliability and image. BRT, however, can be delivered in Guangzhou in a much faster time frame and a much lower cost - around 25 times cheaper - than the metro.

BRT is a high capacity bus system with a unique identity operating primarily on a segregated right of way. BRT typically involves busway corridors on segregated lanes and modernised bus technology. In addition to segregated bus lanes, BRT systems also commonly include:

• Level boarding and alighting through multiple doors
• Pre-board fare collection
• A regulatory and planning body specific to the BRT
• Quality service contracts with multiple private operators
• Comfortable shelters and stations
• Clean bus technologies
• Modal integration and facilities for non-motorised transport
• Sophisticated marketing and customer service.

The wide variations in type, capacity and performance of BRT systems reflects the wide scope of potential applications, and the inherent flexibility of bus-based mass transit. BRT can be suitable in small cities of several hundred thousand people as well as for the largest megacities. The most famous BRT system historically was Curitiba, a small city in Brazil. But since 2004 the most noteworthy BRT implementations worldwide have all been in cities exceeding 10 million people: Sao Paulo, Seoul, Mexico City, Beijing and Jakarta.