The new 11-kilometer section will connect Europe to Asia via the Bosphorous Bridge. Photo by dkilim.

Next month Istanbul will unveil the world's first inter-continental bus rapid transit (BRT) system, connecting Europe to Asia via the Bosphorous Bridge. The 11-kilometer section connecting the two continents is the third phase of the city’s first BRT corridor.

Phase one of the Metrobus system was completed in September 2007, with a ridership of 220,000 passengers per day. Phase two, completed in September 2008, increased the corridor length to 30 kilometers. Serving the city’s commercial center, the corridor transported 500,000 passengers per day.

IETT, Istanbul's public transport authority that operates Metrobus, reports that 20 percent of the BRT riders are car owners who have chosen to leave their cars parked at home.
  
Once open to the public, the 41-kilometer corridor will carry 850,000 passengers per day, according to estimates from IETT. This figure is close to the total ridership of Istanbul's existing regional rail system, which spans 144-kilometers and carries 870,000 passengers per day.   
 
EMBARQ Senior Transport Engineer Dario Hidalgo evaluated the first phase of the Metrobus corridor last March and found that “despite the project's many successes, the system has many accessibility and operational issues." To address these concerns, the Center for Sustainable Transport Turkey (SUM-Türkiye) is working with local authorities to enhance the project, which recently garnered honorable mention at the 2009 Sustainable Transport Awards.

Says Hidalgo: "That the BRT could be built quickly at a reasonable cost, and that it could be built in the middle of  an expressway requiring no appropriation of land, made it a very attractive choice."