04 Mobility
New look for growing bus fleet Un nouveau look pour un parc de bus renforcé
All city-run buses will eventually sport a new coloured-stripes look. Tous les bus de la Ville de Luxembourg arboreront un nouveau look : des bandes multicolores.
The capital’s bus system is making a series of enhancements. Sunday winter sale shopping might be the right occasion to try out new services. Le rÉseau de bus de la capitale fait l’objet d’amÉliorations. Le premier dimanche des soldes d’hiver sera peut-Être l’occasion idÉale de tester les nouveaux services. NAaron Grunwald ODavid Laurent / Wide
T
he city’s bus fleet is in the midst of a make over, but it is not only the colour scheme that is being upgraded. The Autobus de la Ville de Luxembourg service took delivery of 22 new buses in 2011 that have “the lowest emissions you can get at the moment,” explains department head Laurent Hansen. This includes five diesel-electric hybrids that are expected to enter service in January. All city-run buses will eventually sport a new coloured-stripes look. While inspired by the city’s new multiplicity brand campaign, Hansen explains that each stripe represents a bus line and so a potential trip taken on the capital’s bus network.
Free service sunday the 8 th The city’s City Shopping Bus – a pair of fully electric shuttles – already feature the colourful design. The new buses entered service in the autumn and run all day on a single charge, says Hansen. The route is popular with families and older residents, as it con-
gabriele's city magazine luxembourg
nects the Glacis parking lot with the heart of the city centre’s shopping area. The free service runs Monday to Saturday, leaving every ten minutes starting at 8:30 a.m., with the last return from rue Beaumont back to the Glacis departing at 6:26 p.m. The City Shopping Bus will also run exceptionally on Sunday, 8 January, when many shops will be open for annual winter sales. To ease traffic congestion and take the opportunity to promote public transportation, the rest of the city’s bus network will also be free that day. In Hollerich, the free Bouillon Park & Ride garage will be open, with the number one bus running every ten minutes to and from the city centre beginning at 1:30 p.m. The final return bus leaves the Royal Quai 2 at 6:46 p.m. The Call-a-Bus system – another service popular with families and older residents, as well as weekend revellers – will finish replacing its five buses in the coming months, Hansen says. Call-aBus provides on-demand point-to-point travel within the city. It launched in 2007 as a “lot of elderly people said they didn’t want to travel through the city centre or through the gare centrale” to get to their final destination, Hansen explains.
Call-a-Bus upgrade The bus fleet upgrade is being driven by the merger of Call-a-Bus with the former Rollibus service this past summer. Rollibus was also an on-
demand point-to-point shuttle service, but served wheelchair users. However, Hansen says there was no need to operate two different systems, both in terms of gaining efficiency as well as avoiding the stigmatisation of residents with physical disabilities. That is why the city is in the process of introducing modular buses that can take mixed numbers of sitting and wheelchair passengers. Service is provided at a flat rate for each trip between any two locations within the capital’s borders. It costs five euro one-way (ten euro roundtrip) for a single passenger, and €2.50 for each additional passenger on the same itinerary. Wheelchair users and those accompanying them pay €1.50 per one-way journey. Users need to phone at least 45 minutes in advance, although reservations can be made up to three weeks in advance. The service is currently used by between 600 and 800 people per month and occasionally the system reaches its maximum capacity. However Hansen hopes software being tested now will help the city boost those numbers with the present number of buses. Right now “if it’s booked, it’s booked,” laments Hansen. “If the buses are full, we can’t accept the trip.” The special system undergoing trials aims to better calculate routes and manage trip requests, which will add to overall capacity. The Call-a-Bus service is available from 9 a.m. to midnight, Monday to Saturday for all users, and exclusively for wheelchair users on Sundays. Q
www.citymag.lu