A radial route is a

public transport Public transport (also known as public transit, mass transit, or simply transit) are forms of transport available to the general public. It typically uses a fixed schedule, route and charges a fixed fare. There is no rigid definition of whic ...

route linking a central point in a city or town, usually in the

central business district A central business district (CBD) is the Commerce, commercial and business center of a city. It contains commercial space and offices, and in larger cities will often be described as a financial district. Geographically, it often coincides wit ...

(CBD), with a suburb (or satellite) of that city or town. Such a route can be operated by various forms of public transport, including

commuter rail Commuter rail or suburban rail is a Passenger train, passenger rail service that primarily operates within a metropolitan area, connecting Commuting, commuters to a Central business district, central city from adjacent suburbs or commuter town ...

rapid transit Rapid transit or mass rapid transit (MRT) or heavy rail, commonly referred to as metro, is a type of high-capacity public transport that is generally built in urban areas. A grade separation, grade separated rapid transit line below ground su ...

tram A tram (also known as a streetcar or trolley in Canada and the United States) is an urban rail transit in which Rolling stock, vehicles, whether individual railcars or multiple-unit trains, run on tramway tracks on urban public streets; some ...

s (streetcars),

trolleybus A trolleybus (also known as trolley bus, trolley coach, trackless trolley, trackless tramin the 1910s and 1920sJoyce, J.; King, J. S.; and Newman, A. G. (1986). ''British Trolleybus Systems'', pp. 9, 12. London: Ian Allan Publishing. .or troll ...

es, or motor buses. Typically, a pair of radial routes will be combined, solely for operational reasons, into a single cross-city route, between one suburb and another suburb. A cross-city route of that type is sometimes called a ''through route''. A public transport operator may combine radial routes into a through route because terminating a route in a city or town centre has certain disadvantages: *Vehicles can cause congestion while standing between journeys and when turning. *Valuable land is often occupied with route terminal facilities. *Time is wasted by vehicles turning round or reversing (reducing vehicle utilization and increasing costs). *Passengers wishing to travel across the city or town centre will have to change vehicles or walk for part of their journeys. On the other hand, there are certain advantages in terminating a route in a city or town centre: *Schedules are less likely to be disrupted by congestion (since there can be provision for recovery time in the city center). *Convenient interchange between routes may be provided at a common terminal. *Fare structures are less complex. In most cases, the advantages of operating routes across a city or town centre outweigh the disadvantages, but each case must be assessed on its own merits.

References

{{Public transport, state=collapsed Public transport Transportation planning Types of bus service

See also

References