Bustrain

Bustrain is a term used in public transport discourse to describe a vehicle or service that blends features of buses and trains. In practice, it can refer to either dual-mode vehicles capable of operating on both roads and railway tracks, or to a passenger service on a rail corridor served by bus-like vehicles that travel part of their route on rails. The concept aims to combine the flexibility of buses with the capacity and efficiency of rail transport.

Dual-mode designs typically employ a road vehicle with switchable or detachable rail wheels (bogies) and may use electric, diesel, or hybrid power. When traveling on tracks, the vehicle conforms to railway standards, including gauge, signaling, and platform compatibility; on roads it behaves like a conventional bus. Some proposals envision fleets of buses that run on rails for core trunk routes and switch to roads for last-mile connections.

Advantages include potentially lower capital costs than building new rail lines, improved coverage and frequency, and the ability to reuse existing bus fleets for rail services. Challenges include mechanical and safety complexity, limited speed and capacity compared to conventional trains, complicated maintenance regimes, compatibility with rail infrastructure, and regulatory hurdles related to operating on rail networks.

Historically, the most common dual-mode concepts are road-rail vehicles used for maintenance or limited passenger services, and true railbuses that operate on dedicated light-rail corridors. The term "bustrain" is not widely adopted in mainstream transit practice, and in many cases projects are described using the terms railbus, road-rail vehicle, or bus-rail integration rather than "bustrain."

See also: Railbus, Road-rail vehicle, Bus rapid transit, Light rail.