A crowded No. 71 bus is seen on its exclusive lane yesterday on Yan'an Road. (Zhao Yun)
The new Bus No. 71 route along 17.5 kilometers of bus-only lanes under the Yan'an Elevated Road is meeting with mixed success.
Commuter numbers are down, although it remains popular. But some passengers are not satisfied that it has not made travel faster since it began last Wednesday.
Bus company Ba-Shi Public Transportation Group, said it was cutting intervals between services to meet the high demand and was considering giving conductors portable ticket machines.
"I thought it would be faster on the bus-only lanes," a passenger surnamed Xu, 64, told Shanghai Daily. "But the buses have cables which restricts the speed and there are still a lot traffic lights."
Another passenger, surnamed Shi, 30, began using the bus when the People's Square Metro Station was closed for renovation.
"This is an alternative, but I will still take Metro when the People's Square Station reopens as it's faster and more reliable," Shi said.
The 18-meter buses have three doors. The front and rear are for passengers embarking — where tickets can be bought — and the middle is for disembarkation. But at peak times, passengers enter through the middle door, where they cannot buy tickets or scan transport cards.
"We are considering equipping the conductors with portable machines to facilitate passengers to scan transportation cards," a bus company officer surnamed He said yesterday. He said the company was also increasing capacity.
"The bus route has both advantages as well as disadvantages," a passenger surnamed Pan said. "But we should encourage such new projects and give it more time."
