Description
The EmX system is made up of sections of dedicated bus lanes for most of the route (60%), with normal roads in between. The vehicles are given signal priority via ground-loop signaling to the traffic control system, with special traffic signals at intersections. The vehicles have two sets of doors on the left and three on the right, allowing loading from platforms on either side. Most of the right hand side platforms can only accommodate the rear two doors. Riding the Emerald Express was free when it began operations, but now costs regular fare. The vehicles are equipped with continuously variable transmission which allows for quick but smooth acceleration from stops and through the various road segments.
On weekdays, service runs approximately from 6:00am to 11:00pm. Buses arrive every 10 minutes throughout the day, with longer headways during the evening and the first hour of the morning. More limited service operates during the weekend.
In the first month of operation buses had trouble with the signal priority system; buses had to achieve careful positioning to communicate with the signaling loop, and light priority was not always immediate. Early tests of the system caused the light control systems to crash when signal priority was requested, resulting in blinking reds in all directions until an engineer could reset the terminal. LTD worked with the control software vendor to iron out the bugs.
Read more about this topic: Emerald Express (Em X)
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