Bybanen makes life easier for public transport passengers in Bergen. Our Bybanen design strategy is therefore consistently user-centered in every aspect.
This manual is based on how we would like the journey to be experienced: simple, functional, accessible and predictable from beginning to end. When finding your way, while waiting, while travelling, and when you arrive at your destination.
user-centered
Being user-centered and making your day easier has everything to do with Bybanen enabling people to travel conveniently and efficiently through the city. Bybanen makes your arrival time predictable. Our many hourly departures and stops in close proximity to your daily chores means you can be sure that Bybanen is always nearby.
The user is at the centre of everything we plan and build in connection with Bybanen.
For everyone
Being user-centered and making people’s day easier also include every aspect of the planning and construction of Bybanen. It is designed to be user friendly for all residents, whether you are in a wheelchair, bring a baby carriage, are blind, or have been for a bike ride in the mountains and prefer to do the last lap home by tram. The shelters are unobtrusive and transparent, blending in with the cityscape without restricting the view. The terminals make it easy to transfer between bus and tram.
Easy to find
The distinct orange colour, which has become a marker for public transport in the entire city of Bergen, is designed to fulfil the customer’s need to find the stops easily and efficiently.
Vox Pop: Four Views on Bybanen
Bybanen Makes an Impact
In 2016, between 40,000 and 50,000 travellers used Bybanen on an ordinary weekday.
Every NOK spent on Bybanen development generates approximately NOK 20 in business and housing investments along the line.
The volume of travellers using public transportation in the districts in the 'south corridor' increased from 19 % in 2008 to 28 % in 2013.
The increase in house prices along Bybanen line is higher than in the rest of Bergen.
Making people’s life easier has not only resulted in an award-winning public transport system; Bybanen has also become a driving force for urban development. It has contributed the transformation of suburban areas, new housing, new places to go to, and new places to belong. In short, Bybanen has affected everyday life in Bergen to a much greater extent than we could ever have foreseen.
The Bybanen Brand is far more than just our logo and graphic profile. Our brand holds a promise of ‘making your day easier’ in everything we do. Bybanen should always be simple, functional, accessible, and predictable. All work connected to Bybanen must maintain the identity and brand we have established over the years.
The Travel Experience Builds the Brand
The brand is established through the user’s total experience when travelling. Every contact point you encounter is part of building the brand; from waiting in the shelter to buying a ticket, embarking on your journey, or watching the ‘white line’ winding through the landscape.
High Expectations
After travelling with Bybanen for several years, the users have a clear idea of what they expect the journey to be like. They expect Bybanen to always be simple, functional, accessible, and predictable. These are features we need to maintain at all times. Every time we make a decision, we must ask ourselves: Is this simple, functional, accessible, and predictable? Only when the answer is an indisputable ‘yes’ are we reinforcing the Bybanen brand further.
Everything we do should contribute to Bybanen remaining simple, functional, accessible, and predictable.
predictable
The predictability of Bybanen means the passengers can be sure they will depart and arrive on time. The important aspects here are recognisability and the customers’ expectations. The distinct orange colour and defined design principles for stops, surroundings, vehicles, and uniforms make Bybanen predictable and recognisable in every encounter with the customer.
accessible
Bybanen is part of the customers’ everyday life. It should be visible in the cityscape and accessible to all. Consequently, Bybanen is developed using universal design as a primary principle covering every aspect of the journey: step-free access, tactile guidelines, and real time information are vital factors. The stops are placed close to living areas, work places, businesses and services, and other infrastructure. Bybanen makes the city accessible for all users, with convenient, direct access from the stops.
simple
Every feature of Bybanen is kept in a simple and distinct style, which makes it simple to use and understand. The ‘white line’, the orange meeting point, convenient pedestrian connections, and efficient real time information are some of the features that make it simple to gain overview and find your way to Bybanen. The stops are also designed to accommodate convenient transfers between bus, bike, and tram. Bybanen should also be simple to operate and maintain.
functional
Bybanen is known for its open design – from light and open vehicles with large windows and good views to the transparent shelters and the visible, open line moving through the landscape. For Bybanen to help make your day easier, we need to ensure easy accessibility and functional stops. Every passenger, regardless of personal circumstances and where they encounter Bybanen, should always experience their travelling with us as easy and uplifting.
our tram — a success
The best brands provide value to their users at every contact point. Bybanen has succeeded demonstrably in doing so. The idea of Bybanen being ‘Our Tram’ has been a driving force in this development. Seeing how Bergen’s inhabitants have embraced Bybanen, we may conclude that this dream has come true; Bybanen is ours.
ahead of its time
The Bybanen project was initiated by an international design competition. The competition called for a complete solution and interdisciplinary approach. The winning team’s solution was user-centered and featured a integrated brand strategy. In 2006, these were ground-breaking thoughts. The result has created high expectations for Bybanen. By following this manual, we ensure that everything we do lives up to this standard and contributes to fulfilling these high expectations.
Bergen’s Most Important Tool
Bybanen is the most important tool for urban development in Bergen. It is the backbone of the public transit system and a premise provider for the development and densification of Bergen. This is ratified in the municipal zoning plan and serves as a basis for all development.
The Owners and Managers of Bybanen
Bybanen is managed by several organisations, all of which jointly contribute to preserving, strengthening, and maintaining the Bybanen brand.
The Disciplines Involved in Bybanen
Building an award-winning light rail calls for an interdisciplinary team. All the disciplines involved are vital to maintaining a positive travel experience. The Bybanen project is highly complex, involving a great variety of disciplines, including urban development, landscape architecture, and engineering fields such as track engineering, construction, electrical engineering, and road, water supply, and sewage.
Building an award-winning light rail calls for an interdisciplinary team.
The user’s experience of Bybanen is defined by all its elements: from colours, materials, and surface to the sound of the tram, from the details of the shelter and its protection to the tram wire’s line through the landscape.
Together We Build the Whole
Everyone involved in the development of Bybanen, from working on the tiny details to building the larger constructions, contribute to the whole. Every little detail provided by every discipline is vital. The Bybanen brand is dependent on every involved party carrying out their work with equal pride: those responsible for planning, projecting, building, operating, administering, and marketing. We are all maintaining Bybanen as a brand.
Bybanen’s universal design was pioneering work and has been awarded the Innovation Award for Universal Design.
the tram for everyone
Universal design is a basic principle for the overall construction of Bybanen, purposely applied to make the users feel that the tram is functional, accessible, predictable, and simple for everybody.
Universal design is more than tactile guidelines; it is about ensuring predictability and recognition throughout the entire journey, from preparing the journey, buying your ticket, waiting, embarking and departing to the interior of the vehicles and the staffs’ uniforms.
Unified design, step-free access, sound and light signals by the doors, efficient information, and spacious vehicles are just some of the contributing factors that make it easy for everyone to feel comfortable when using Bybanen.
#bybanen
A complete solution
Bybanen builds the city
Bybanen runs at street level, through the city, where people move, and where the city’s potential for development is. It concentrates urban development and is a natural part of the landscape and urban spaces. The tram connects the different parts of the city. It is a public transport system as well as a driving force for Bergen’s urban development.
An Open Solution
Bybanen is a tram system running on a separate track at street level. It has right of way and priority at road junctions.
Bybanen runs through different landscapes and urban spaces and connects the different parts of the city. It consists of three different main elements: the line, the stops, and the vehicles.
the line
The line runs primarily at street level and is designed as a natural part of the cityscape. It consists of the track, the ‘white line’, the tram poles, lighting, and different adjustments to the landscape it runs through. While travelling, you have a good view of the surroundings and Bergen’s varied landscape.
the stop
The stops are easily accessible, visible, and centrally located in the different parts of the city. They consist of a platform, an orange information point, shelter, tactile guidelines, lighting, and furniture. The stops provide sufficient shelter from the elements and enough information for the waiting time to feel safe and be predictable.
the vehicles
‘The orange nose’ makes the tram easily recognisable and highly visible in the cityscape. The vehicles’ colour scheme enhances the universal design, making the tram more accessible. The dark stripe and the dark doors makes the doorway light up upon opening, making it easier to see where to enter the tram.
The Purpose and Structure of the manual
The entire planning and development project and every party involved contribute to the Bybanen travel experience. Consequently, it is important that you, as one of the involved parties, has insight into how your work and expertise influence the other areas of expertise, the final result, and not least the traveller’s perception of Bybanen.
The manual is divided into the chapters: When finding your way, while waiting, while travelling, and when you arrive at your destination.
Main photo: Thor Brødreskift, Atle Kårstad, Bergen kommune / Christine Hvidsten
Photo collage: Arkitektgruppen Cubus, Francisco Munoz, Morten Wanvik
Illustrations: Arkitektgruppen Cubus
