Bus station

A bus station ( bus station or bus terminal also ) is a traffic system, which serves as a (usually central ) point of attachment of various bus routes. Here you will find a traffic area with road access, which is traveled by buses. For entry and exit of passengers platforms No. (analog the platforms in a station ) is applied, where buses stop. For cross-linking by rail or light rail sometimes combined platforms will be created during construction or renovation of bus stations.

In Germany, the symbol is often ZOB (central bus station ), where the short name TO (central connection stop ) is common; an outdated popular name is rubber Station.

Location

Bus stations are found generally in a central location either near a train station or in the city center. A distinction is made (mainly in Germany for international traffic ) between transfer hubs of the city or transport, and contact points for long-distance bus.

An exception to the rule of a central location, the ZOB Berlin is, which is located either in the center of Berlin, nor in the vicinity of a ( long-distance ) train station. Without additional walk he is only connected directly to the bus network of the Berlin Transport Authority; to U and S -Bahn a distance of several hundred meters to be covered on foot, respectively. Distance buses reach him via the nearby city motorway ( AVUS ). Another exception is the central bus station in Stuttgart. Due to the construction work for the Stuttgart 21, the previous location opposite the railway station was closed on 1 April 2010, the buses now from two locations in the districts Obertürkheim and from Zuffenhausen.

The first bus station in Germany was opened on 31 December 1931 in Flensburg in the converted old railway station. 1951 ( new 2003) with its bus platforms and a common central building was the concept of the Hamburg ZOB Europe leading the way for the bus long-distance transport.

In many countries, the movement with long-distance bus lines has a much greater significance than in Germany. Here you will often find bus terminals, with the dimensions of a central station or a smaller airport, for example, the 2005 Helsinki Kamppi Center was opened or the bus station Esenler in Istanbul, the largest bus station in Turkey and one of the largest in the world.

Often there is a bus station in close proximity to a railway station a railway, railway (S -, U -Bahn ) or light rail to facilitate the passengers to transfer between public transport transport. Attention is paid on short routes, adequate passenger information and a barrier-free design, including for example, markers for the visually impaired. However, there are also places that have no rail connection, but a bus station, situated where several bus lines. For ease of boarding, with pushchairs, luggage or wheelchair beveled as well as increased curbs are available.

Rendezvous systems in city traffic

The space required for bus stations to a single station is high, must therefore reflect on alternatives in tight inner city areas. The design of a bus system offers the best possibilities: One ended in the downtown bus requires a U-turn and rest stop, a diameter line shifts both in the urban outdoors and therefore requires no place in the downtown area. If direct connectivity between multiple lines, these must at and depart a short time later at the same time. This principle is called the rendezvous system. For this purpose, each line requires its own hold. If the clock line timetables, however, shifted from each other, at five minutes pitch between the individual journeys a stop for up to twelve lines is sufficient. The waiting times for passengers are not overly long at shifted 20 -minute cycles over a rendezvous system because of transit or possible waiting times to arrive late buses can also take up to ten minutes to complete. In many cases, can be dispensed with bus stations by a favorable timetable design without major disadvantages for passengers.

Special cases

A special situation arises in places with a central transfer hubs in the central region and a second node at a railway station located some distance from the center. If this is not respected in the timetable design on equivalence of the two nodes (eg, with diameter lines), there is an obliteration of mostly station node, then rail passengers lost for the bus system.

An example is Minden. There exists a city bus system consisting exclusively of radial lines; the ZOB at the station and usually only in 30 -minute intervals served ( end of the line for two stops in the center ).

Similar situations exist in Bocholt, Herford, Hanau and Gladbeck.

In frets a bus station was built in the center of a new city bus system; the bus station near the train station remained endpoint of regional bus lines and is therefore weekdays only busy during the school transport.

In Baden- Württemberg Tuttlingen there is a similar situation where the central switch point ( called ZOB city center ), and in each case to the minute .00, .15, .30 and .45 take several buses to each other after the rendezvous concept (However, each node different, since most of the buses are every hour, drive it only single compressor for half hour). Many of these lines continue to the bus station to the train station, for example, the line 50, which runs only at the central bus station city center from the west, then out until lying in the east of the station. They sheared from the central bus station in the 15 -minute intervals that will be driven in a combination of regional and city buses between the center and the train station, so there is no waiting for 15 minutes at the station, when switching from train to bus. The same procedure applies to the lines 51 and 52, who come from Trossingen or VS -Schwenningen in the Tuttlingen west. This first take a small detour to the bus station at the station before they go the traditional route of Tuttlingen city traffic to the center.

Examples ( Germany )

Only the central bus stations

Baden-Wurttemberg

Bavaria

Berlin

Brandenburg

Bremen

Hamburg

Hesse

Mecklenburg -Western Pomerania

Lower Saxony

North Rhine -Westphalia

Rhineland Palatinate

Saarland

Saxony

Saxony-Anhalt

Schleswig-Holstein

Thuringia

Pictures

Central bus station Munich ( ZOB) ⊙ 48.14221511.548616

Bustreffpunkt " KölnerTor " in Erkelenz

Eschweiler Bushof

Bus station in Herne

Bus station in Ilmenau

Regional ZOB Bad Salzuflen on the ground floor of a parking garage

ZOB in Wetzlar

Combined platforms for rail and bus

Bus / S platform in Bergisch Gladbach

Examples (other)

Other major bus terminals are

Pictures

Central Bus Station in Jerusalem

George Washington Bridge Bus Terminal in Manhattan, New York City

Post car deck in Chur railway station

Bus station Kamppi Center in Helsinki