BRT versus LRT (was: Silver Line Underground is Clunky)

Having rode BRT systems in Pittsburgh and Cleveland as well as the Dayton OH TrolleyBuses I was surprised how bumpy and noisy the ride was in the Silver Line Tunnels. I rode the Silver Line Underground for the first time this past weekend
The Dual mode Deisal/Wire buses are noisy even when in the eletric mode
The Surface of the tunnels is hard concrete and is rather bumpy. The Silver Line branch to the Cruise Terminal had few riders and was rather convulted however the Harpoon Brewery tour produces a good chunk of traffic. The Airport Line was cool gooing thru the X Ted Williams Tunnel but once at the Airport we got stuck in traffic at all 4 airline terminals no dedicated ROW and no mercy here. I spent at least a hour and half just to round trip the Silver Line Airport Branch.
The Silver Line main line Dudley branch with its curbside running next to cars parked on the street is the most dangerouse thing i have seen in mass transit. Cars doors are Xopening up without warning and pedestrains are walking with there HUA like they dont care. Dedicted Center lanes with Phisical barriers is the best way to do this .I did not see any accodian buses and unlike Cleveland there is no signal actuation in the buses favor. The termination of the Silver Line at Dudley makes no sence when Ruggles Station is only a mile away and could tie into the orange line over there. Bus Rapid Transit could work in some citys and only when there is a dedicated car free right of way. Boston is just way too big for any other option then rail.

Why does the Silver Line keep coming up on this site? I'm not trying to be rude, but it's a bus line, there's no rails involved.

The reason is that Bus Rapid Transit or BRT is considired "rapid transit" and it is a open debate as to if buses in dedicated rights of way is a viable alternitive to rail.
The Website "Light Rail Now" will say no but the USDOT and the FTA will say yes. My personal take is that BRT if done right can be a good alternitive to rail if the buses have there own dedictaed rights of way. Only 1 citys in the USA does that well and its Pittsburgh with 4 Busways in dedcated Rights of Way. East Busway,South Hills Busway,Carnegie Busway and the North Hills HOV. Ottawa Canada is the other example. Busways can be intrigrated into a larger network of rail as Pittsburgh has direct interchange between its Busway system and Amtrak/Light Rail.
One avantage is a "one seat" ride with no transfers as the branch bus lines feed into the dedicated right of way.
After a while (Like 20 years) BRT right of ways eventualy graduate to being rail systems as in the Case of Seattle.

The Orange Line in Los Angeles also uses a dedicated right of way, ironically It was built on a former Southern Pacific railroad right of way.

The quality of transit is more dependent on the right of way as opposed to the kind of vehicle.

Don't forget, buses came before streetcars. Back then (almost 200 years ago) there were no smoothly paved roads and the intent of going to rails in the first place was to allow fewer horses to transport more people given the smoother ride and less energy consumed bouncing the vehicle up and down.

Part of the tussle between BRT proponents and rail rapid transit could be this, anyone want to comment?

Everyone knows BRT is more susceptible to private vehicles invading the right of way. Maybe the BRT proponents want it that way so VIP's can use the right of way as their personal express lane to downtown. Lawmakers might be more willing to approve a project with that kind of perk. With rail rapid transit, private vehicles cannot usurp the right of way.

The Silver Line does not lend itself to usurpation now but let's imagine that Phase III to somewhere near the Tremont St. theater district was built. Then there would be an easy path from the South Boston to Back Bay that some might find convenient.

Yes BRT lanes allow for Express Emergency Traffic to use the lanes. This is a important byproduct of BRT.

Tell you what... there's a parallel (locked) topic at http://www.railroad.net/forums/viewtopi ... 65&t=63770 in the MBTA forum, but we can use this to compare BRT versus LRT. I've changed the thread title to reflect such.

Remember - if you have to ask whether it's off topic, it probably is, and if you don't mention rail in your post I'll take that as a sign that there's nothing more to discuss