Guidelines for the Design and Construction of Kerb-Guided Busway Infrastructure in the UK

The Guided Busway Design Handbook, produced in 2004 and the Guided Busway Construction Handbook (2006) are best practice guides to guideway construction. This paper describes development of the handbooks which drew on experience from across industry and lessons learnt from previous projects. Ongoing work since publication of the handbooks to further develop knowledge of design, construction and operation of kerb-guided busways is also discussed. To inform the specification for the Cambridgeshire Guided Busway, studies of the Leeds and Essen Guided Busways were carried out. These studies are described examining both the physical dimensions of the guideways and dynamic vehicle data recorded on test runs. These are compared to the quoted construction tolerances for each system. The analyses carried out and the correlation between the physical guideway features and the measured ride quality are given. Tolerances required for the construction of future guided busway systems are be discussed in conclusion to this section.