MO Museum is a modern art museum in Vilnius, Lithuania. As a private initiative of Lithuanian scientists and philanthropists Danguolė Butkienė and Viktoras Butkus, it functioned as an art museum without walls for about ten years. The collection of 6,000 modern and contemporary pieces contains major Lithuanian artworks from the 1950s to the present day.

The museum was opened to the public on 18 October 2018 in the building designed by Studio Libeskind and the team of Lithuanian architects Do Architects. Total building floor area: 3100 sq.m., height: 17 m. Architect Daniel Libeskind commented that although it is his smallest project, it is also one of his favorites, and he also noted that he used circular form in it for the first time (spiral staircase in the interior). Italian news agency ANSA included Mo Museum into Top 10 21st century museums to visit. The museum hosts numerous exhibitions, film screenings, educational workshops, concerts and other cultural events, which are intended for various age groups.

Prehistory of MO Museum

History of MO. MMC

MO began its work in 2008, when the founders of the museum Viktoras and Danguolė Butkai started their own art collection. Art expert Raminta Jurėnaitė and other art critics agreed to assist with the collection of Lithuanian artworks dating from the 1960s to the present.  The MO's collection is distinguished through its reflection of Lithuanian cultural modernization at the beginning of 1960s as well as the slow but continuing cultural liberation, which began after the end of the Stalin era.

The Modern Art Centre (MMC) was founded in 2009 with the intention to open a museum in the future. The active collection of artworks, organized by the MMC, received more attention from the public, which helped raise the interest of collectors and thus assisted in the creation of an art market and the recovery of the arts field in Lithuania.

MMC was orientated not only towards the collection of artworks but also towards education. For this reason, they started publishing art books with the intention to contribute to the Lithuanian education system. Many books on artists and art history by exceptional foreign writers were chosen and published for children. Published books also included translated books for youth and adults as well as albums of great Lithuanian paintings by modernists Arvydas Šaltenis and Kostas Dereškevičius. Later books in MO's collection as well as graphic artworks were published. By the time the MO Museum opened in 2018, the MMC had published over 30 art books for children and adults.

MO Museum is situated in a historically and culturally significant sector of Vilnius city. The defensive embankment of Vilnius is thought to have been located in the 14th century where MO Museum now stands, while the gates of Trakai were built there as a part of a defensive wall in the 16th century. Vingriai, which is located next to the museum, was  Vilnius' main water source and was operative until the 19th century.  The "Lietuvos" cinema was built in this location in 1965 and later became a culturally important space for the city,   providing culture for its people until 2005.

The construction of the MO Museum, which was funded by Viktoras and Danguolė Butkai, began in the location of the "Lietuvos" cinema in April, 2017. It was the first cultural patronage project of such a large scale in the independent Republic of Lithuania as well as the only private museum of its size.

Art Collection of MO Museum

MO Museum's collection is one of the biggest private collections in Lithuania, which was announced to be of national significance in 2011.  The core of the collection are large sets of painting, graphic, photography and video artworks with additional sets of sculpture and interdisciplinary (performance, installation, etc.) artworks. This collection and its context is the base of Lithuanian modern and contemporary art development.

A part of MO's collection is art that was ideologically rejected during the Soviet times and received no attention from the greatest museums in Lithuania because of the political views at that time. The collection introduces those artists who started creating after Lithuania had restored its independence as well. Many of those creators are still working to this day and are well-known artists both in Lithuania and worldwide.

History of MO culture

A new project, "History of Culture," was launched in 2011 in order to offer a better understanding of the context of Mo's art collection. The main aim of the project is to educate and introduce the public to the Lithuanian cultural field. It also encourages new research as well as the publication of new, specialised art writings.

Eleven different forms of culture are thoroughly introduced in the online page of "History of Culture": fine art, literature, theatre, applied arts, scenography, dance, design, architecture, photography, film and music.

Architecture of MO Museum

The building, which MO Museum is situated in, was designed by a well-known American architect Daniel Libeskind. The greatest works of his include: the Jewish Museum in Berlin, Denver Art Museum, Contemporary Jewish Museum in San Francisco, Museum of Military History in Dresden and others. D. Libeskind is also the head architect of the rebuilt One World Trade Center.

The design project of MO Museum building was implemented in partnership with "Studio Libeskind", which is a renowned architecture studio, as well as Lithuanian architecture office "DO architects". This project was the first one in collaboration with "Studio Libeskind" in the Baltic states.

The main aim of building MO Museum was to establish symbolic cultural gates that lead from the medieval Old Town to the modern New Town of 18th century. Mo Museum also revived one of the culturally iconic spaces of Vilnius, in which "Lietuvos" cinema was situated.

Demolition of "Lietuvos" cinema was started in February, 2017. Construction of MO Museum was started later that same year with a symbolic act of a time capsule being buried under the museum.

The premises of MO Museum are meant to accommodate anyone's interests and wishes to spend leisure time in various ways. The entrance hall with an events hall, the gift shop as well as the restaurant "MO Bistro" are located on the first floor, the small exhibition room as well as the reading room on the second floor while the main exhibition room is located on the third floor. One of the most important architectural details of the museum is the spiral staircase, which often tends to be captured by various photographers as well as links the museum with the past experiences of its founders.

The museum also holds premises for the public to relax at. The sculpture garden as well as the terrace are located next to the museum and are always open for the guests.

Art Collection of the MO Museum

The collection of the Mo Museum is composed of work by numerous Lithuanian and local modern artists,  dated from 1960s and the period of "thaw" to the present day and the culture of independent Lithuania.

Painting

The core of the collection is painting, which consists of works by approximately 250 artists. The collection dates back to the modern interwar period and consists of works by modern interwar painters such as Antanas Gudaitis, Leonas Katinas, and Algirdas Petrulis. It goes on to showcase the counter-social-realist, colorful, expressive and decorative painting of 1970s creators such as Jonas Švažas, Vincas Kisarauskas, Vincentas Gečoir and others. Artworks of the 1980s follow, with neo-expressionist painting of artists such as Antanas Martinaitis, Algimantas Jonas Kuras, Kostas Dereškevičius and others. The collection also includes abstract painting, with works by Linas Katinas, Eugenijus Cukermanas and Laima Drazdauskaitė. The Mo Museum holds pieces of 1990s' neo-expressionists Alfonsas Vilpišauskas, Arūnas Vaitkūnas, Jonas Gasiūno, and others.
Artworks created within the past two decades include works in categories that include expressionist, by Alonas Štelmanas; realistic, by Jovita Aukštikalnytė; neoromantic, by Patricija Jurkšaitytė and Eglė Gineitytė; neo-academicist, by Paulius Juška and Žygimantas Augustinas; and conceptual variations of realism by Eglė Ridikaitė and Agnė Jonkutė.

Graphics and Photography

Graphic art as well as photography that form a part of MO's collection date from the 1960s to works of the present day. The collection includes the humanist works of school photographers Antanas Sutkus, Aleksandras Macijauskas, Romualdas Rakauskas, while Alfonsas Budvytis and Vytautas Balčytis are representatives of later generations.

Video art

The collection of video art contains documentary works made while using strategies of social studies (Artūras Raila, Robertas Antinis), as well as expressions of individual surrealist reality (Jurga Barilaitė, Evaldas Jansas, Svajonė and Paulius Stanikai).

Sculpture

Numerous pieces of sculpture and objects are  part of the museum's sculpture holdings. It includes works by Petras Mazūra, Mindaugas Navakas and Gediminas Akstinas.

Artists of the Young Generation

The collection also contains works made by artists of the young generation (Andrius Zakarauskas, Linas Jusionis, Adomo Danusevičius, Eglė Karpavičiūtė, Monika Furmanavičiūtė and others). These have received positive comments from the public and approval from numerous art critics.

Art critic Raminta Jurenaite helps gather the collection of the MO Museum with the assistance of recommendations made by other art critics. All the works in the collection are professionally restored and safely stored in one of the MO's vaults.

Presentation and publicity of the artworks is a priority of the MO Museum. Therefore, interviews are often conducted with the artists, and  audioguides are created and recorded.

Projects of MO Museum

Literatų street

The project of "Literatų street" was implemented in partnership with a curator Eglė Vertelkaitė as well as over a 100 of different artists in the Old Town of Vilnius. More than 200 plates, made by different artists, were installed on the wall of Literatų street to represent the wide prospect of Lithuanian literature. More information on the project and its artists' works can be found in a book "Literatų street. Kuktūrinis gidas" (2014), which was assembled and written by Milda Ivanauskienė, the director of MO Museum.

Vilniaus talking statutes

Mo Museum released a cultural guide "The path of Vilnius statues" to help the public get to know the capital through introduction to sculptures and monuments of Vilnius. The idea was renewed in 2015 by introducing a project "Vilnius talking statues", when 15 of local statues were made interactive. This way Vilnius became the fourth city in the international project, amongst other world's megalopolises such as New York or Copenhagen. Audios' texts on sculptures were written by famous Lithuanian writers and red to record by professional actors.

The history of culture

The ambitious project "The history of culture", which included history on modernization of Lithuanian art, photography, scenography, literature, film, music and other fields of culture, was introduced in 2010. The unique archive of Lithuanian culture history was prepared in partnership with Lithuanian art critics, historians and theorists of culture, architecture and literature. This project is designated to be of use not only for researchers of various fields of culture but for teachers, students and pupils as well.

Laboratory of art

An unusual project, dedicated for management of personnel, "Laboratory of art" was implemented in collaboration with a modern biotechnology company "Thermo Fisher Scientific Baltics" in 2016. Participants visited workspaces of the artists, attended creative workshops prepared by art critics, were introduced to the specifics of MO Museum's vaults. 3 month-long partnership with "Thermo Fisher Scientific Baltics" resulted in an exhibition "Bridges", which was curated by 16 scientists from various fields such as scientific research, manufacture and administration.

Travelling museum

The team of MO Museum visited over a couple of tens of schools and communities in Vilnius with the project "Travelling museum" in 2010. They attempted to achieve a different point of view towards creativity, arts education as well as the relationship between arts world and the lifestyle of people. The team conducted numerous lessons and meetings during which the participants were able to get to know the Lithuanian culture in non-traditional forms and ways.

References

External links

Modern art museums
Art museums and galleries in Lithuania
Museums in Vilnius
Art museums established in 2018
2018 establishments in Lithuania

MO Museum


Macon is a cured and smoked form of mutton. Macon is prepared in a similar manner to bacon, with the meat being either dry cured with large quantities of salt or wet cured with brine and then smoked. The name macon is a portmanteau word of mutton and bacon. In South Africa the term is also used for other bacon substitutes, including ones made from beef.

Generally macon has a light black and yellow color, with the outer edges being a darker pink. Macon looks and feels similar to bacon. It would more commonly be found in a thin sliced form used in sandwiches, or as a smaller cut slice topping on a pizza.

It is also used as a bacon substitute for religious groups such as Jews and Muslims, whose faith does not allow the consumption of pork.

Use in World War II
Local macon production has been practiced for centuries in Scotland. It was mass-produced in the United Kingdom during World War II when rationing was instituted. Scottish lawyer and politician Frederick Alexander Macquisten, was the first to suggest mass production of macon. "If the Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Food will consult with any farmer's wife in Perthshire, she will show him how to cure it," he informed the House of Commons. This led to its popular name Macon's bacon.

See also

 List of lamb dishes

References

Lamb dishes
Scottish cuisine
United Kingdom home front during World War II

Macon (food)


The ABC of Communism ( Azbuka Kommunizma) is a book written by Nikolai Bukharin and Yevgeni Preobrazhensky in 1919, during the Russian Civil War. Originally written to convince the proletariat of Russia to support the Bolsheviks, it became "an elementary textbook of communist knowledge". It became the best known and most widely circulated of all pre-Stalinist expositions of Bolshevism and the most widely read political work in Soviet Russia.

Background

In the October Revolution, part of the Russian Revolution, an armed insurrection occurred. It is traditionally dated to 25 October 1917 Julian calendar (7 November 1917 Gregorian calendar). It was the second phase of the overall Russian Revolution of 1917, after the February Revolution of the same year. The October Revolution overthrew the Russian Provisional Government and gave the power to the Soviets dominated by Bolsheviks. It was followed by the Russian Civil War (1917–1922) and the creation of the Soviet Union in 1922.

The revolution was led by the Bolsheviks. Bolshevik armed forces began the takeover of government buildings on 24 October; however 25 October JC was the date when the Winter Palace (the seat of the Provisional government located in Petrograd, the capital of Russia) was captured.

Writing

The ABC of Communism was written during the civil war, and was written to convince the citizens of Russia. In keeping with the period in which it was written, its mood was that of war communism, a militant optimism. It was a statement of Utopian hopes, not Soviet reality.

Association with Bukharin

Preobrazhensky's co-authorship eventually became "half-forgotten", and The ABC soon became inextricably associated with Bukharin, spreading his fame and giving rise to his reputation.

English translations

The first English translation by Patrick Lavin was published by the Marxian Educational Society, of Detroit, Michigan in 1921. A second English translation by Cedar and Eden Paul was published by the Communist Party of Great Britain in 1922.

References

Communist books
1920 in Russia
Russian Civil War
Russian non-fiction books
1920 non-fiction books

The ABC of Communism


Angst is an emotion. It is an emotion of fear or anxiety (anguish is its Latinate equivalent. Anxious and anxiety have similar beginnings). The dictionary definition for angst is a feeling of anxiety, apprehension, or insecurity. It is used in English to describe a strong feeling of apprehension, anxiety, or inner turmoil.

References

Other websites

Emotions

Angst


is a Latin phrase that may be translated as "love of fate" or "love of one's fate". It is used to describe an attitude in which one sees everything that happens in one's life, including suffering and loss, as good or, at the very least, necessary.

 is often associated with what Friedrich Nietzsche called "eternal recurrence", the idea that, over an infinite period of time, everything recurs infinitely. From this he developed a desire to be willing to live exactly the same life over and over for all eternity ("...long for nothing more fervently than this ultimate eternal confirmation and seal").

 is also discussed in Stoicism.

Nietzsche
The concept of  has been linked to Epictetus. It has also been linked to the writings of Marcus Aurelius, who did not use those words (he wrote in Greek, not Latin). However, it found its most explicit expression in Nietzsche, who made love of fate central to his philosophy. In "Why I Am So Clever" (Ecce Homo, section 10), he writes:My formula for greatness in a human being is : that one wants nothing to be different, not forward, not backward, not in all eternity. Not merely bear what is necessary, still less conceal it—all idealism is mendacity in the face of what is necessary—but love it.The phrase is used elsewhere in Nietzsche's writings and is representative of the general outlook on life that he articulates in section 276 of The Gay Science:
I want to learn more and more to see as beautiful what is necessary in things; then I shall be one of those who makes things beautiful. : let that be my love henceforth! I do not want to wage war against what is ugly. I do not want to accuse; I do not even want to accuse those who accuse. Looking away shall be my only negation. And all in all and on the whole: some day I wish to be only a Yes-sayer.
Nietzsche in this context refers to the "Yes-sayer", not in a political or social sense, but as a person who is capable of uncompromising acceptance of reality per se.

R. J. Hollingdale, who translated Thus Spoke Zarathustra into English, argued that Nietzsche's idea of  originated in the Lutheran Pietism of his childhood.

Suffering
Nietzsche's love of fate naturally leads him to confront the reality of suffering in a radical way. For to love that which is necessary demands not only that we love the bad along with the good, but that we view the two as inextricably linked.  In section 3 of the preface of The Gay Science, he writes:Only great pain is the ultimate liberator of the spirit…. I doubt that such pain makes us 'better'; but I know that it makes us more profound.Nietzsche does not promote suffering as a good in itself, but rather as a precondition for good. A 'single moment' of good justifies an eternity of bad, but one extreme cannot have meaning without the other. In The Will to Power he writes:For nothing is self-sufficient, neither in us ourselves nor in things; and if our soul has trembled with happiness and sounded like a harp string just once, all eternity was needed to produce this one event—and in this single moment of affirmation all eternity was called good, redeemed, justified, and affirmed.

Modern development
Cyril O'Regan remarked that with "all the bravado about  we sometimes get the impression in reading [Nietzsche] that he is expecting as much our pity as our admiration. Still, the aphorism is powerful, and it is powerful not only because it is scintillating in its expression, but because it is experientially apt."

Albert Camus
The French philosopher Albert Camus, in his 1942 essay on "The Myth of Sisyphus", explores ideas similar to those of Nietzsche. According to Camus's philosophy of absurdism, the human condition is analogous to the curse of Sisyphus, who in ancient Greek mythology was condemned to eternally repeat the task of pushing a boulder up a hill only to watch it roll back down again. Like Nietzsche, Camus concludes that happiness is only possible when the essential meaninglessness of one's existence is not only acknowledged but positively affirmed.

In "Return to Tipasa" (1952), Camus writes:

Camus, like Nietzsche, held his embrace of fate to be central to his philosophy and to life itself. Summarizing his general view of life in the above work, Camus further spoke of: "a will to live without rejecting anything of life, which is the virtue I honor most in this world."

In The Plague (1947), Camus seems more skeptical of the  position, which he evokes using the character Father Paneloux, who adopts a "Thy will be done" philosophy in which Christians are to love God with no hope of understanding Him and without pretending they have the right to judge aspects of His creation as good or bad. If God wills that an innocent child is to suffer (as Paneloux witnesses in The Plague), a Christian must do more than accept it, but must love it and even will it.

See also

References

Latin words and phrases
Destiny
Philosophy of Friedrich Nietzsche
Philosophy of life

External links

Amor fati


Manasha is a  Mythological Bengali television soap opera that   Premiered on 29 January 2018  and  airs on Colors Bangla. It is produced by Subatra Roy,Manas it Stars Chandi Saha as the Main Female Protagonist and Aditi Chatterjee,Fahim Mirza,Neil Chatterjee, and Indrajit Majumdar in Supporting Roles. Manasha took    the time slot of Colors  Bangla's Popular show *Roopkatha.

Plot
It will narrate the story of Goddess Manasha. It is not the story of a vindictive venomous snake-goddess alone but a sad saga of a lonely woman who perpetually gets hurt by the closest male members of her life—her father, her husband and all other celestial men folk, who censor her right to be worshiped as a Goddess.Manasha is the goddess of snakes.
She is the daughter of shiva.Her legends emphasize her erratic temper and despondency deep-rooted by her father loRd shiva's rejection ,her stepmother's hatred and her husband's rejection .Follow the journey of this lonely goddess who perpetually falls victim to male chauvinistic behaviour prevalent among gods.Fighting her own can Manasha win her right to be worshipped as a goddess

Cast
Chandi Saha as Goddess Manasha
Aditi Chatterjee as Parvati
Indrajit Majumdar as Shiv
Fahim Mirza as Indra
Neil Chatterjee as Manasa's Father
Kunal Banerjee as God Biswakarma
Rajib Bose as Vishnu
 Manisankar Banerjee as Bramha
Nabanita Malakar as Saraswati
Samantak as Kartik
Saurav Chatterjee as Narad
Sayan Karmakar as Agni
 Saugata Bandyopadhyay  as Paban
Bipul Patra as Aswini dev
Debraj Mukherjee as Sesh Naag
Nayana Bandyopadhyay as  Devi Jaya
Samata Chatterjee as Kaal Naagin
Manoj Ojha as Basuki
Swagata Mukherjee as Kadru
Rahul Ghosh as Pola

Other websites
 tellychakkar.com news

2018 Indian television series debuts

Manasha


The Denver, South Park, and Pacific Railroad (later called the Denver, Leadville and Gunnison Railway) was a historic  narrow gauge railroad that operated in Colorado in the western United States in the late 19th century. The railroad opened up the first rail routes to a large section of the central Colorado mining district in the decades of the mineral boom. The railroad took its name from the fact that its main line from Denver ascended the Platte Canyon and traversed South Park, hence its popular name "The South Park Line." Despite its lofty goals, the line never connected itself with the Pacific or any transcontinental line, apart from its terminal at Denver Union Station.

Founded in 1872 by Colorado Governor John Evans, the company was purchased by the Union Pacific Railway in 1880, though it continued to be operated independently. The line went bankrupt in 1889 and was reorganized under a new corporate name as the Denver, Leadville and Gunnison Railway. When the Union Pacific went bankrupt in 1893, the DL&G lines went into receivership and were eventually sold to the Colorado and Southern Railway. In the first half of the 20th century, nearly all the company's original lines were dismantled or converted into . The last train to run on narrow gauge C&S tracks was from Como, Colorado on April 11, 1937. A section of the standard gauge line between Leadville and Climax is still operated as a passenger excursion railroad called the Leadville, Colorado and Southern Railroad. At its peak the Denver, South Park and Pacific Railroad had  of narrow gauge line, making it the largest narrow gauge railroad in the state of Colorado.

Description of lines

The company's main line was  narrow gauge and went from Union Station in Denver up the valley of the South Platte River to the town of South Platte, then followed the North Fork of the South Platte through Buffalo Creek and Bailey. West of Bailey the route along North Fork and through the north end of the Tarryall Mountains essentially followed the route of present-day U.S. Highway 285 to Como, where it branched northward (see below). From Como the main line traversed South Park to Garo, where a spur went northward to Fairplay and Alma. The main line continued south over Trout Creek Pass. On the western side of the pass, a small spur of the main connected to Buena Vista, then traversed the southern end of the Sawatch Range through the Alpine Tunnel to Pitkin and Gunnison.  The distance along the main line from Denver to Gunnison was approximately .

A principal branch of the main line north from Como went over Boreas Pass to Breckenridge, Dillon, Keystone, Frisco and Climax. This branch terminated at Leadville.

A small  branch of the main line  south of Denver connected to Morrison (this line was actually constructed first).

History
The company was incorporated in the Colorado Territory as the "Denver, South Park and Pacific Railway" on October 2, 1872, with 2.5 million dollars in capital. Less than a year later, on June 16, 1873, it was reorganized by John Evans as the "Denver, South Park and Pacific Railroad" with an increased capitalization of 3.5 million dollars. Construction from Denver to Morrison began in August, 1873, by the Denver Railway Association, following approval by Arapahoe county voters who passed a $300,000 bond issue. On June 20, 1874, the tracks reached Morrison, and on July 3, scheduled service began between Denver and Morrison, with two 2 round-trip mixed trains per day. This branch would provide a healthy income from the start, shipping stone, lumber, and coal from Mt. Carbon. However, the financial panic in 1873, precipitated by Jay Cooke & Co. of Philadelphia (financiers of the Northern Pacific Railroad), caused a reduction in traffic, resulting in reduced construction until 1876. During this period, the Denver, South Park and Pacific Railroad struggled to remain solvent.

The tracks reached the mouth of the Platte Canyon on May 4, 1878,  from Denver, and by June 2, the tracks reached  up the canyon. The tracks reached Buffalo Creek on June 17. The following year, on May 19, 1879, the tracks reached to the summit of Kenosha Pass and on June 27 they reached Como. The original stone roundhouse at Como has been restored, and is presently in use in the operation of a 3' narrow gauge locomotive acquired from the Klondike gold fields. An operating turntable has also been installed in the original turntable pit.

The railroad was earning about $1,200 a day, with only a daily operating expense of $480. This made the railroad very profitable, while also allowing a steady flow of money to help with construction cost. In November 1879, with the tracks only as far as South Park, the company contracted for the initial construction of the Alpine Tunnel, with an expected finish date of July 1, 1880.  The following month, the tracks reached to the summit of Trout Creek Pass.

Leadville mining boom

A mining boom near Leadville resulted in a construction race between Denver, South Park and Pacific and
Denver and Rio Grande Railroad, with both reaching Buena Vista in early 1880. The Denver, South Park and Pacific completed construction first, but rather than both companies laying track to Leadville, Jay Gould pressured the two companies to make a deal called the "Joint Operation Agreement" of October 1, 1879. The companies agree that "...for the purpose of harmony and mutual profit...", the Denver and Rio Grande would lay tracks to the north from Buena Vista to the Leadville mining district, but that the Denver, South Park and Pacific would share equal traffic rights. Similarly, the Denver, South Park and Pacific would build into the Gunnison Country via Chalk Creek, with equal traffic rights given to the Denver and Rio Grande.  In 1884 the D&RG ended the Joint Agreement, which forced the DSP&P to build their own line to Leadville.  This route, the "High Line" left the original route at Como, and proceeded across Boreas Pass to Breckenridge, then across Fremont Pass to Leadville.  This route was noteworthy for crossing the Continental Divide twice (from the Atlantic side to the Pacific side at Boreas Pass, and back to the Atlantic side at Fremont Pass), and was extremely difficult to operate in winter.

The Alpine Tunnel

Meanwhile, construction continued from Buena Vista past Mount Princeton to what would become the Alpine Tunnel.  The Alpine Tunnel was "holed through" on July 26, 1881. Location of the tunnel portals and establishing a center line of the bore were completed in December 1879.  Construction of the Alpine Tunnel took place between 1880 and 1881, by Cummings & Co. Construction company. This was the highest and most expensive tunnel built up until that time. It exceeds  above sea level, with its highest point at .  It is  under Altman Pass, later to be named Alpine Pass to prevent confusion, with a  bore. It took 18 months to complete, with most of the construction done during the winter months. The tunnel only had a thirty-year life span, with the last locomotive passing through the tunnel on November 10, 1910.

The line exited the west portal of the Alpine Tunnel, to Alpine Tunnel Station, the highest railroad station in the United States. There also was a turntable, water tank, and a two-story frame boarding house that replaced the stone boarding house and engine house, which burned down in 1906. Parlin, located at milepost 189.78 is where the tracks of the Denver, South Park and Pacific and the Denver and Rio Grande joined up and ran along each other to Gunnison. The land for the track was given to the railroad by local dairy rancher John Parlin around 1877, with the condition that the railroad would build a depot, and stop for at least five minutes so passengers could buy milk. The main line reached Gunnison the following year in 1882.

After reaching Gunnison

The Denver, South Park, & Pacific built north of Gunnison up the Ohio Creek Drainage to the Castelton and Baldwin Areas.  Then planning to cross over Kebler Pass to Delta, Grand Junction, and points west and south.  Track was laid  past the Baldwin Mine, and another  were graded, but after losing rights of way to Lake City and the San Juan Mining District, no more construction would be done west.

The railroad went into receivership in May 1888. On July 17, 1889, the company was sold at foreclosure proceedings to the Denver, Leadville and Gunnison Railway, a new railroad which was formed to operate the DSP&P lines. The successor company went into receivership on August 4, 1894. The Colorado and Southern Railway, chartered in 1898, took over the former DSP&P lines in January 1899. The Colorado and Southern started dismantling in 1910 with the closure of the Alpine Tunnel.  In 1930, the C&S attempted to shut down the main line through the Platte Canyon, in cooperation with the Denver Board of Water Commissioners, who desired to build a dam in the canyon (See Waterton Canyon, CO). Nevertheless, the construction of modern roads in the Rockies led to a decrease in revenue and traffic. The last freight and passenger trains between Denver and Leadville operated in April 1937, and on April 10, 1937, the South Park Line officially closed down. The last regular freight train operated between Denver and Como on April 25. The last  narrow gauge section, between Leadville and Climax, was converted to standard gauge on August 25, 1943.

Locomotives

National Locomotive Works
The Denver, South Park & Pacific owned one 4-4-0 and four 2-6-0 type locomotives built by the National Locomotive Works before 1880. These locomotives were most often used to haul daily passenger trains from Denver to the South Park region of Colorado on account of their low tractive effort. Unfortunately, these small locomotives are not well documented, so little is known about them.

Mason Machine Works
The Denver, South Park & Pacific owned nineteen 2-6-6T and four 2-8-6T type locomotives built by the Mason Machine Works. These locomotives had drivers that pivoted around curves and were the first non-European locomotives to be fitted with Walschaerts valve gear. Because of the pivoting drivers, these locomotives were known to "hunt and wander" around curves, making them inefficient for the steep mountain grades and sharp curves that the South Park traversed. The 2-6-6T Mason Bogies are the most well-known out of any of the DSP&P locomotives because of their distinct appearance. Only one Mason Bogie (DSP&P #24, named Buena Vista/ D&LG #57) survived into the Colorado & Southern era.
The 2-8-6T Mason Bogies were the only locomotives of this type ever built by Mason, making them a very unique addition to the DSP&P's roster.

Baldwin Locomotive Works
The Denver, South Park & Pacific owned eight 2-8-0 type locomotives built by the Baldwin Locomotive Works, all of which were built in 1880. One of these locomotives (DSP&P #51/DL&G #191) is preserved and nicely restored, though not operational, at the Colorado Railroad Museum.

Brooks Locomotive Works
The Denver, South Park & Pacific owned ten 2-6-0 type locomotives built by the Brooks Locomotive Works. These were rebuilt sometime during the Colorado & Southern era to feature straight boilers rather than their original wagon top boilers. By the time the last locomotive of this type was finally scrapped in 1927, they had become only Brooks locomotives in name.

Cooke Locomotive & Machine Works
The Denver, South Park & Pacific owned twenty 2-8-0 and eight 2-6-0 type locomotives built by the Cooke Locomotive & Machine Works. The 2-8-0 locomotives were all sold off or scrapped by the Colorado & Southern by 1922. These were near-identical to the earlier Baldwin 2-8-0s with the only difference being the size of the drivers, which are one inch larger. The 2-6-0 type locomotives were fitted with wagon top boilers during the C&S's modernization process and #72 still survives today in Breckenridge, Colorado as the C&S #9.

Paint
The DSP&P's original locomotives were painted in bright colors that reflect the stylistic choices of railroad executives and locomotive builders at the time. The most popular colors to see on the DSP&P in its early years were wine red, brown, and green. Locomotives were painted black in 1885 during the Union Pacific's vast re-lettering program. Another distinct feature of locomotives of this time period were bright and decorative Russia Iron boiler jackets, though these were eventually either replaced or completely painted over.

Spark Arrestors
Common spark arrestors to see on the early years of the South Park Line were the "Nesmith" and "Congdon" designs these were large, round, and diamond shaped. The DSP&P's locomotives carried these until they were eventuall replaced with the "McConnell" (also known as the "Pancake") design.
In the years that the Colorado & Southern controlled the South Park's railway network, a common spark arrestor that could be seen after 1917 was the "Ridgway" design.

For the complete roster of DSP&P/DL&G locomotives visit: https://utahrails.net/up/denver-south-park-locos.php

See External Links for images and sites detailing different South Park locomotives.

Remaining Locomotives
There are two locomotives that still exist from the original Denver, South Park and Pacific Railroad:

#51, a  built in 1880 by Baldwin Locomotive Works.  #51 was renumbered in 1885 to #191 and still bears this number, currently residing at the Colorado Railroad Museum in Golden, Colorado, on static display.  #191 is the oldest remaining authentic Colorado locomotive in the state.

#72, a  built in 1884 by Cooke Locomotive Works.  #72 was renumbered by the Colorado & Southern Railroad as their #9, and has been restored for operation in Breckenridge, Colorado. Currently on display at the Rotary Snowplow Park in Breckenridge.

Note: The locomotive at South Park City is not an authentic D,SP&PRR locomotive. It is a  narrow gauge locomotive built by H.K. Porter, Inc. in 1914 for a railroad in Guatemala. The Como roundhouse locomotive (Klondike Kate #4) is a 1912 2-6-2 by Baldwin Locomotive Works manufactured for the Klondike Mines Railway, operating to Dawson, Yukon Territory, then after 1942 on the Alaskan White Pass & Yukon, before operating on tourist lines in the Lower 48 state of the USA.  It also is not an historic D,SP&PRR locomotive, having waited until 2017 to run on South Park track, in the Como, Colorado and Boreas Pass area.

References

Further reading

External links

Mason Bogie "Tenmile" after Union Pacific re-lettering

 DSP&P Cooke 2-6-0 information

DL&G #191

DSP&P Spark Arrestor Designs
Railwayeng.com: Denver, South Park and Pacific Railroad
Narrowgauge.org: Denver, South Park and Pacific map with links to old photos
Denver Public Library Digital Collections photos of the Denver, South Park and Pacific
The curse of Alpine: Ill conceived and ill fated, Alpine Tunnel only served for twenty-eight years (off and on)
South Park Rail Society
Historic American Engineering Record (HAER) documentation:

Defunct Colorado railroads
3 ft gauge railways in the United States
Narrow gauge railroads in Colorado
Predecessors of the Colorado and Southern Railway
Railway companies established in 1873
Railway companies disestablished in 1889

Denver, South Park and Pacific Railroad


Medhat al-Mahmoud (born September 21, 1933) is the former head of the Iraqi Supreme Judicial Council and is the 1st Chief Justice of Iraq. He has served in this capacity since 2005 to 2017.

Early career
Mahmoud was born and grew up in Rusafa, attending both primary and high school in Baghdad, before attending the College of Law at Baghdad University, which he graduated from as part of the class of 1959 as top of his class. After being admitted to the bar, he practiced law and also served as a reserve officer in the Iraqi Army. In 1960 he was appointed as a Judicial Investigator for the Department of Justice, and was later appointed as a Judge in 1968 after passing a competency examination. As a judge he served in numerous places in central Iraq, including Ar Rifa`i, Qalat Sukur, Musayyib, the Juvenile Court in Baghdad, as well as the Courts of First Instance in Kadhimiya and Baghdad.

Post-invasion career
Following the 2003 invasion of Iraq al-Mahmoud was made a supervisor, or minister, for the Ministry of Justice by the Coalition Provisional Authority on 12 June 2003. He was later appointed Vice President of the Court of Cassation, before being appointed as Chairman of the Federal Court of Cassation. On 3 March 2005 he was appointed as Chairman of the Federal Supreme Court as well as head of the Supreme Judicial Council, a body responsible for the oversight of all courts across Iraq.

He was removed from his position as Head of the Supreme Judicial Council in February 2013 following the passing of a new law preventing the Head of the Council from also being the Chairman of the Federal Supreme Court.

Attempted dismissal
In mid February 2013 Iraq's Justice and Accountability Committee decided to remove al-Mahmoud from his role as Chairman of Iraq's Supreme Federal Court. Mahmoud then filed a successful appeal to the cassation panel, which failed to find any strong evidence of ties to the previous regime, and rejected al-Mahmoud's dismissal.

References

1933 births
20th-century Iraqi lawyers
Living people
People from Baghdad
University of Baghdad alumni
21st-century Iraqi lawyers

Medhat al-Mahmoud


Stein Erik Hagen is a Norwegian businessman. He is chairman of Orkla. Hagen holds large stakes in the companies Steen & Strøm, Jernia and Komplett.

According to the magazine Kapital, Hagen has NOK 24 billion. It is making him the second richest person in Norway.

Biography
Stein Erik Hagen was born 22 July 1956. He studied Kjøpmannsinsituttet.

Together with his father he founded discount store chain called RIMI in the 1970s. In the 2000s he sold RIMI to Swedish companies ICA and Ahold. Most of the money he invested in the Orkla.

At various times he financially supported different parties (Liberal Party, Christian Democratic Party, Conservative Party and Progress Party).

References

Living people
Norwegian businesspeople

Stein Erik Hagen


Salisbury House, sometimes noted as the Weeks House, in Des Moines, Iowa is a Tudor, Gothic and Carolean style manor home built on a wooded hill with commanding views. It was built by cosmetics magnate Carl Weeks and his wife, Edith Van Slyke Weeks, between 1923 and 1928. Salisbury House was modeled after the King's House in Salisbury, England, contains 42 rooms and measures just over . The property is owned and operated by the Salisbury House Foundation and is open to the public for tours, public events, and private rentals.

Salisbury House was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1977. The listing covered a  area with two contributing buildings, one other contributing structure and one contributing site. Salisbury House is also on the List of Registered Historic Places in Iowa.

Timeline
1923 to 1928: Constructed and furnished with an original budget of $150,000, the final cost was $3 million.
1926: Carl and Edith Weeks and their four sons--Charles, William, Evert, and Lafayette--move into Salisbury House.
1934: Carl and Edith Weeks donate Salisbury House to Drake University; they retain ownership of the House's collections and furnishings, and pay rent to Drake as tenants until 1954.
1954: Iowa State Education Association (ISEA) purchased Salisbury House and its collections from Drake University and the Weeks Family for $180,000 and began using it as office space.
1993: Salisbury House Foundation was formed to preserve, interpret and share the property for the cultural and educational benefit of the public.
1998: Salisbury House Foundation purchased the property and collections from ISEA for $4.0 million.
1999: Operation of Salisbury House as a historic house museum began.

Collections
The Weeks Family amassed extensive collections of fine art, decorative art, rare books, musical instruments, historic documents, weapons and sculpture, and most of their holdings remain in Salisbury House to this day. However, in the summer of 2019, Grinnell College purchased the library of Carl and Edith Weeks and moved the collection of approximately 3,000 volumes and 2,500 historic documents to Burling Library on the Grinnell College campus.  The collection remains open for research by the public, and Grinnell continues to collaborate with Salisbury House on programming involving the magnificent collection.

The Salisbury House Foundation offers various tour packages that allow visitors to experience many highlights from the Weeks Family's collections.

References

External links
 Salisbury House Website
 Salisbury House Blog

Houses completed in 1928
Houses on the National Register of Historic Places in Iowa
Houses in Des Moines, Iowa
Historic house museums in Iowa
Museums in Des Moines, Iowa
Jacobean architecture in Iowa
National Register of Historic Places in Des Moines, Iowa

Salisbury House (Des Moines, Iowa)


Aloïs Biebuyck ( 28 June 1860 – 28 January 1944)  was a Belgian Lieutenant General who fought in the First World War.

Aloïs lost both parents at a young age and was raised by his uncle in Brussels. He followed a military career and became a major in 1906 and a colonel in June 1914.

In World War I, he defended with the 2nd Carabinier regiment the Nete River between Lier and Duffel.
At the Battle of the Yser, he personally led the 3rd Carabinier regiment in a counteroffensive near Pervijze on 22 October 1914. He was hit by three bullets and transported to the hospital in Calais, where his son lieutenant Marcel Biebuyck died in his presence on 29 March 1915.

After 7 months in hospital, Aloïs returned to the front on 14 May 1915. He was promoted to Major-General on 11 June 1915, Aide-de-camp of King Albert I on 1 August 1915, and Lieutenant-General on 30 March 1916. He became commander of the 6th Army division on 8 August 1917, and in the Fifth Battle of Ypres he led the four Infantry divisions in the South Group of the Belgian Army to victory between 28 September and 14 October 1918 in conquering Passendale and Moorslede. By 11 November 1918, his troops had reached the Lys River between Harelbeke and Deinze.

After the war, he received many awards and 2 streets were named after him. He retired on 1 July 1925 and died in 1944.

Source
 Het Vijvenaarke (in Dutch)
 Ars moriendi (in Dutch)

1944 deaths
1860 births
Belgian Army generals of World War I
People from Waregem

Aloïs Biebuyck


Wotabunch! was released by WEA in 1977 following the success of Ian Dury as a solo artist. It is technically the 'second album' by Kilburn and the High-Roads.

When talking about Kilburn and the High-Roads' output in his track-by-track comments in the booklet for Repertoire Records 2CD Ian Dury & The Blockheads: Reasons to be Cheerful retrospective, Ian Dury said:

"The Kilburns made two albums, but they were both the same. The second one was to try and stop the first one coming out! In fact, it didn't prevent them, because Warner Bros. Records waited until I had some success, and then they put out that album called Wotta Bunch."

Wotabunch! was recorded in January 1974 at the Beatles' Apple Studios in London shortly after two line-up changes in the band. Two long-term members, bassist Humphrey Ocean and drummer David Newton-Rohoman, were no longer in the band at the time. In fact, new bassist Charlie Sinclair had only just joined the group when the sessions began. Newton-Rohoman had been sacked virtually on the eve of the recording sessions, being replaced by session musician Louis Larose. Charlie Sinclair and Louie Larose had left the Pub Rock band Phoenix (led by Roy St. John), in which David Newton-Rohomon replaced Larose on drums.

Though the session went fairly well, with recording interspersed with trips to local pubs, there was a problem with capturing the band's live sound. This was a problem that the Kilburns had suffered before when making demos the previous year and would suffer again when making Handsome. Some blame is given to Larose's conventional drumming style (and later, on the Handsome sessions, to producer Hugh Murphy). Despite the trouble, Wotabunch! is much closer to their live sound than the softer, polished Handsome versions. Dury was not pleased with the release due to a remix featuring the addition of strings. The final remix for the recordings was done more or less behind Dury's back, while on he was on a week-long holiday. However, this was soon to be irrelevant, as shortly after the sessions were over Raft (the record label that had signed the band) folded. The bands on the Raft label were told that they would go to WEA, who owned Raft, but after a visit from WEA's top man, Joe Smith at a concert, Kilburn & The Highroads were dropped.

In 1977, following the success of Ian Dury's solo album New Boots and Panties!!, and the good response to "Sex and Drugs and Rock and Roll", Warner Bros. Records issued the Raft recordings as Wotabunch! WEA listed the band as 'Kilburn & The Highroads featuring Ian Dury' in order to capitalize on Dury's success. The cover art, featuring cardboard cut-outs of the band posed with a group of stuffed animals, features a different line-up of the band than the one that recorded the album.

As of 2010, the album has not been re-issued on CD.

Track listing

All tracks written by Ian Dury and Russell Hardy unless otherwise noted.

 "The Call Up" - 2:24
 "Crippled with Nerves" - 3:02
 "Patience (So What?)" - 2:04
 "You're More Than Fair" - 3:03
 "Upminster Kid" - 3:26
 "Billy Bentley" (Dury, Charlie Hart) - 3:34
 "Huffety Puff" - 2:13
 "Rough Kids" - 3:15
 "The Roadette Song" - 3:05
 "The Badger and the Rabbit" - 2:39
 "The Mumble Rumble and the Cocktail Rock" - 3:41
 "Pam's Moods" - 2:57

Personnel
 Ian Dury - lead vocals
 Russell Hardy - piano
 Keith Lucas - guitar
 Charlie Sinclair - bass
 Davey Payne - saxophones
 Louis Larose - drums

Sources
Sex and Drugs and Rock and Roll: The Life of Ian Dury by Richard Balls, first published 2000, Omnibus Press
Ian Dury & the Blockheads: Song by Song by Jim Drury, first published 2003, Sanctuary Publishing
Reasons to Be Cheerful, 2-disc compilation first released 1996, Repertoire Records

References

1977 albums
Kilburn and the High Roads albums
Warner Records albums

Wotabunch!


Ulrik Thestrup Cold (15 May 1939, Copenhagen — 13 October 2010, Copenhagen) was a Danish operatic bass. In 1963 he made his professional opera debut at the Royal Danish Theatre (RDT) as Seneca in Claudio Monteverdi's L'incoronazione di Poppea. He was active at the RDT for the next several decades and served as the director of the RDT from 1975 to 1977.

He was committed to the Staatstheater Kassel from 1969 to 1971. He has appeared as a guest artist with several major opera houses internationally, including the English National Opera, the San Francisco Opera, and the Wexford Festival Opera.

Ulrich Cold sang the role of Sarastro in the Ingmar Bergman film of The Magic Flute, by Mozart, the role of Gurnemanz in the 1975 recording of Wagner's Parsifal, and the role of Argante in the 1977 recording of Handel's Rinaldo conducted by Jean-Claude Malgoire.

References

1939 births
2010 deaths
Danish opera singers
Operatic bass-baritones
Musicians from Copenhagen

Ulrik Cold


Shortcut Safaari (Hindi:शॉर्टकट सफ़ारी ) is a 2014 Hindi film directed by Amitabha Singh and featuring Bollywood actor Jimmy Sheirgill. The film was initially titled The Trip. Shortcut Safari had its festival premiere at The National Children's Film Festival (NCFF) on 15 November 2014, established by the Children's Film Society of India (CFSI) at the capital New Delhi.

Amitabha Singh's debut film, Shortcut Safari was screened for the audience of Bengal at Nandan (Kolkata) on 24 December 2014. As part of the 4th Kolkata International Children's Film Festival, a special show of the film was organise by Shishu Kishore Academy, an institution under the aegis of Information and Cultural Affairs Department, Government of West Bengal.

Shortcut Safari is a film in Hindi that revolves around a story of a group of urban children who get trapped in a dense forest during their school outing.
It's a story of exploration and adventure through the experiences of these seven children over three days, who gain values in mutual respect, team-spirit and perseverance on one hand; and the vital relevance of a clean environment with a balanced wildlife on the other.

Cast
 Jimmy Sheirgill as Chief Jimmy
 Aashi Rawal as Tara
 Sharvil Patel as Rahul
 Mann Patel as Ankur
 Ugam Khetani as Sameer
 Stuti Dwivedi as Hiya
 Deah Tandon as Shinjini
 Hardil Kanabar as Krituporno

Synopsis

Shortcut Safaari' is an entertaining as well as informative, broad spectrum story that revolves around a group of urban, school-going Children (between ages 10 to 14 years) who get stranded - far away from their homes and families! Imagine what will happen when such a bunch of city kids get stuck in the deep of a dense forest! Seven of them... all different and quirky. That too, for three days- completely on their own!! Well... they have their share of fun- Naturally! In 'Shortcut Safaari'. To top it, they have a chance encounter with two poachers; called 'Kaju' and 'Katli' who are roaming the forest in hunt of a rare, clouded leopard 'Jimmy'. The kids manage to subdue the poachers and hold them captive, but that leads to a much bigger confusion... and a fun-filled roller-coaster like experience for the young and the restless! But... Actually... Who is the real Jimmy!? Come to meet him in this entertaining story of exploration and adventure through the eyes of these children. Who, in turn, gain values on mutual respect, team-spirit and perseverance on one hand; and the vital relevance of a sustainable environment with a balanced wild-life on the other. And the kids are- baby 'Tara'; big bully 'Ankur'; smarty 'Krituporno'; fashionable 'Hiya'; brave 'Rahul'; careful 'Samir' and wise 'Shinjini'. So, come and share their experience on 'Shortcut Safaari'!!

Festivals
Shortcut Safari is a film based on adventure and mystery.
The festival screening was an event with Jimmy Shergill, Singh and the cast of the film present on the occasion.
Actor Jimmy Shergill stated it was exciting to be part of the project that has a cause.
Sheirgill plays a key role in Shortcut Safari that has been directed by Amitabha Singh.

Music

The music album of Shortcut Safaari has 5 different kinds of tracks and offers variety for everyone. Shaan has sung 'Piggy Bank' composed by Samir-Mana. This is a very peppy number in the film which has been picturized on the kids. Sadhana Sargam and Atreyi Bhattacharya have lent their voices to 'Ek Dhara Ke Jan Gan' which has been composed by Rohit Sharma. 'Bako Sufu', 'Zor Lagaa De', 'Dip Dip Dara' are some of the other tracks which provide spunk to the album. This adventure film traces the lives of a few school going kids who get lost in a dense forest during their outing. Junglee music (Powered by the Times Group) is the official music label of the movie.

References

External links

2014 films
2010s Hindi-language films

Shortcut Safari


The East Slovak Gallery, established in 1951, was the first regional gallery in Slovakia. The mission of the Gallery is the protection and presentation of the collection and documentation of the art scene and artistic life in the region of Eastern Slovakia.

Commission

Today the Gallery houses over 7,000 works of art. Apart from a representative collection of nineteenth and twentieth century art from the region of Eastern Slovakia, the collection also provides an overview of modern and contemporary Slovak art. In addition to its extensive exhibition activities the Gallery also focuses on research and exploration of art scene in Eastern Slovakia, and especially of Košice modernism, the phenomenon associated with the 1920s characterised by the unusual development of modern art. In its vast premises, the Gallery presents a wide range of Slovak and international art. The accompanying activities such as guided tours, children´s workshops or lectures and Library with professional art literature offer great possibilities of spending leisure time directly at the gallery premises.

Fire

The day 12 January 1985 wrote the history of the East Slovak Gallery as an unfortunate event. On that day an extensive fire broke out in its storerooms and destructive flames suddenly transformed hundreds of works of art into cinders and ruin. The fire was caused by leak from a damaged street gas pipe. The fire irreversibly destroyed 1030 works of art.

The former County House / Hlavná 27

Since 1992 the Gallery has a seat in the building of the former County House. The building in a Baroque and Classicist style, designed by a Vienna-based builder, J. Langer, was completed in 1779. In the period of 1888-1889 the building underwent several alterations: the front part of the house was adjusted, courtly wings were added and the rear wing was modified. On the facade one can see the coat of arms of the Abaúj-Torna County of 1558. Upstairs, there is the assembly hall, the so-called historic hall, with illusive arcades showing the coat of arms of former Abaúj-Torna County as well as some of its towns and villages. It was here that the first cabinet meeting of the National Front of Czechs and Slovaks was held on April 5, 1945, which proclaimed the Košice government programme.

EHMK 2013

As part of the European Capital of Culture, a section of the gallery was rebuilt in 2013 and a new underground exhibition space was created to serve primarily for the presentation of contemporary art.

Alžbetina Street 22

Under the administration of the East Slovak Gallery there is also an exhibition space in the building on Alžbetina Street 22 in addition to the space on Hlavná Street 27. A baroque building from the early eighteenth century was modified in a pseudohistorical style towards the end of the nineteenth century.

References

External links
 facebook/VSG.sk

Art galleries established in 1951
Art museums and galleries in Slovakia
Museums in Košice
1951 establishments in Slovakia

East Slovak Gallery


Aasman Se Aage (English: Beyond the Sky) is an Indian Hindi language television drama that first aired on Life OK. It premiered on 23 April 2012 and was telecast from Monday to Friday evenings through 13 July 2012.

The show tells the story of Meenakshi, a talented but poor slum girl who gets the opportunity of a lifetime to be on a dance reality show on television called Aasman Se Aage (Beyond The Skies).

The show was both a drama about dancing as well as a critical examination of reality shows, laying bare behind-the-scene exploitation and manipulations of the medium. It was promoted with the tagline 'the reality behind reality shows."

Plot summary
Talented dancer Meenakshi hails from a poor slum in Mumbai. She gets the chance to take part in a TV Dance Reality Show Aasman Se Aage when the charismatic and unscrupulous producer of the show, DC, sees in her an opportunity get higher TRPs (TV Ratings) by exploiting her poverty.

Initially her mother, Malti, is opposed to the idea but gives in to Meenakshi's pleas. From here the show starts following the journey of Meenakshi and some other participants - Karishma (a cut-throat competitor who is ready to do anything to win), the brothers Angad (who is good-natured and extremely supportive of his brother) and Akshat (who always needs to win at any cost, but suffers from performance anxiety), and Sameer (a young desperate school kid whose parents want him to become a doctor rather than a dancer).

Meenakshi gets through the auditions and is invited to live in the ASA Academy, wired with cameras. As soon as Meenakshi enters the academy, DC cleverly leaks a video which suggests that he has a sexual relationship with her. This makes the other participants resent Meenakshi. Karishma leads a hazing campaign against Meenakshi where she is mercilessly taunted for being a naukrani's (maid's) daughter.

Meenakshi's choreographer, Alan, inspires her to give her best and dance for the sake of expressing herself and not for the contest. However, when Karishma connives with Akshat to steal a song on which Meenakshi is supposed to perform, Meenakshi breaks down and runs back home.

DC manipulates Alan, making him believe Meenakshi likes him romantically, and sends him to convince her to return. Meenakshi agrees and returns with renewed strength.

Soon after, DC announces the final shortlist of 12 candidates. Sameer, Meenakshi's closest confidante, is thrown out of the show. Wanting a love story on the show, DC throws the constantly fighting duo of Akshat and Meenakshi together. Sameer is turned away from his house by his father and feels dejected. He is mugged and tries to commit suicide but is saved by Akshat and Meenakshi. This leads to Akshat and Meenakshi becoming friends. On the final day, they perform together but lose.

Cast
  Ojaswi Oberoi as Meenakshi Kumar
   Apurva Agnihotri  as Dev Chopra / DC, producer of the show
   Siddhant Karnick as Akshat, a contestant on the show who is later partnered with Meenakshi
Aham Sharma as Angad, Akshat's brother, a contestant on the show
  Monica Khanna as Karishma, a competitive contestant on the show
   Kushal Punjabi as Alan, Meenakshi's supportive choreographer on the show
   Mauli Ganguly as Roshni
   Rajesh Khera as Sanam
   Manini De  as  Mahua
   Malini Sengupta as Malti, Meenakshi's mother
   Pooja Singh  as  Poonam, Meenakshi's sister
   Sheela Sharma as Vinita
   Mansi Sharma as Sandhya
   Pulkit Sandhu as Bobby
   Vrushika Mehta as Vrushika
   Akash Shetty as Akash

Reception and Cancellation
On 11 June 2012, it was confirmed that Life OK was going to change the program line-up, and on doing this they decided to end Aasman Se Aage due to it getting low ratings. The decision led to protests from fans of the show and the channel was criticized for cancelling the show within 2 months of its airing, leading to speculation that the decision may have been politically motivated.

References

External links

Indian Express Review

Indian drama television series
Indian dance television shows
2012 Indian television series debuts
2012 Indian television series endings
Life OK original programming
Television series about television

Aasman Se Aage


Bus rapid transit (BRT), also referred to as a busway or transitway, is a bus-based public transport system designed to have much more capacity, reliability and other quality features than a conventional bus system. Typically, a BRT system includes roadways that are dedicated to buses, and gives priority to buses at intersections where buses may interact with other traffic; alongside design features to reduce delays caused by passengers boarding or leaving buses, or paying fares. BRT aims to combine the capacity and speed of a light rail transit (LRT) or mass rapid transit (MRT) system with the flexibility, lower cost and simplicity of a bus system.

The world's first BRT system was the Busway in Runcorn New Town, England, which entered service in 1971. , a total of 166 cities in six continents have implemented BRT systems, accounting for  of BRT lanes and about 32.2 million passengers every day.

The majority of these are in Latin America, where about 19.6 million passengers ride daily, and which has the most cities with BRT systems, with 54, led by Brazil with 21 cities. The Latin American countries with the most daily ridership are Brazil (10.7 million), Colombia (3.0 million), and Mexico (2.5 million).

In the other regions, China (4.3 million) and Iran (2.1 million) stand out. Currently, TransJakarta is the largest BRT network in the world, with about  of corridors connecting the Indonesian capital city.

Terminology
Bus Rapid Transit is a mode of mass rapid transit (MRT) and describes a high-capacity urban public-transit system with its own right of way, vehicles at short headways, platform-level boarding, and preticketing.

The expression "BRT" is mainly used in the Americas and China; in India, it is called "BRTS" (BRT System); in Europe it is often called a "busway" or a "BHLS" (stands for Bus with a High Level of Service);. The term transitway was originated in 1981 with the opening of the OC Transpo transitway in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.

Critics have charged that the term "bus rapid transit" has sometimes been misapplied to systems that lack most or all the essential features which differentiate it from conventional bus services. The term "bus rapid transit creep" has been used to describe severely degraded levels of bus service which fall far short of the BRT Standard promoted by the Institute for Transportation and Development Policy (ITDP) and other organizations.

Reasons for use
Compared to other common transit modes such as light rail transit (LRT), bus rapid transit (BRT) service is attractive to transit authorities because it does not cost as much to establish and operate: no track needs to be laid, bus drivers typically require less training and less pay than rail operators, and bus maintenance is less complex than rail maintenance.

Moreover, buses are more flexible than rail vehicles, because a bus route can be altered, either temporarily or permanently, to meet changing demand or contend with adverse road conditions with comparatively little investment of resources.

History

The first use of a protected busway was the East Side Trolley Tunnel in Providence, Rhode Island. It was converted from trolley to bus use in 1948. However, the first BRT system in the world was the Busway in Runcorn, England. First conceived in the Runcorn New Town Masterplan in 1966, it opened for services in October 1971 and all  were operational by 1980. The central station is at Runcorn Shopping City where buses arrive on dedicated raised busways to two enclosed stations. Arthur Ling, Runcorn Development Corporation's Master Planner, said that he had invented the concept while sketching on the back of an envelope. The town was designed around the transport system, with most residents no more than five minutes walking distance, or , from the Busway.

The second BRT system in the world was the Rede Integrada de Transporte (RIT, integrated transportation network), implemented in Curitiba, Brazil, in 1974. The Rede Integrada de Transporte was inspired by the previous transport system of the National Urban Transport Company of Peru (In Spanish: ENATRU), which only had quick access on Lima downtown, but it would not be considered BRT itself. Many of the elements that have become associated with BRT were innovations first suggested by Carlos Ceneviva, within the team of Curitiba Mayor Jaime Lerner. Initially just dedicated bus lanes in the center of major arterial roads, in 1980 the Curitiba system added a feeder bus network and inter-zone connections, and in 1992 introduced off-board fare collection, enclosed stations, and platform-level boarding. Other systems made further innovations, including platooning (three buses entering and leaving bus stops and traffic signals at once) in Porto Alegre, and passing lanes and express service in São Paulo.

In the United States, BRT began in 1977, with Pittsburgh's South Busway, operating on  of exclusive lanes. Its success led to the Martin Luther King Jr. East Busway in 1983, a fuller BRT deployment including a dedicated busway of , traffic signal preemption, and peak service headway as low as two minutes. After the opening of the West Busway,  in length in 2000, Pittsburgh's Busway system is today over 18.5 miles long.

The OC Transpo BRT system in Ottawa, Canada, was introduced in 1983. The first element of its BRT system was dedicated bus lanes through the city centre, with platformed stops. The introduction of exclusive separate busways (termed 'Transitway') occurred in 1983. By 1996, all of the originally envisioned 31 km Transitway system was in operation; further expansions were opened in 2009, 2011, and 2014.  As of 2019, the central part of the Transitway has been converted to light rail transit, due to the downtown section being operated beyond its designed capacity.

In 1995, Quito, Ecuador, opened MetrobusQ its first BRT trolleybuses in Quito, using articulated trolleybuses. The TransMilenio in Bogotá, Colombia, opening in 2000, was the first BRT system to combine the best elements of Curitiba's BRT with other BRT advances, and achieved the highest capacity and highest speed BRT system in the world.

In 2017 Marrakesh, Morocco, opened its first BRT Marrakesh trolleybus system (BHNS De Marrakesh) trolleybuses Corridors of 8 km (5.0 mi), of which 3 km (1.9 mi) of overhead wiring for operation as trolleybus.

In January 2004 the first BRT in Southeast Asia, TransJakarta, opened in Jakarta, Indonesia. , at , it is the longest BRT system in the world.

Africa's first BRT system was opened in Lagos, Nigeria, in March 2008 but is considered a light BRT system by many people. Johannesburg, South Africa, BRT Rea Vaya, was the first true BRT in Africa, in August 2009, carrying 16,000 daily passengers. Rea Vaya and MIO (BRT in Cali, Colombia, opened 2009) were the first two systems to combine full BRT with some services that also operated in mixed traffic, then joined the BRT trunk infrastructure.

Main features

BRT systems normally include most of the following features:

Dedicated lanes and alignment

Bus-only lanes make for faster travel and ensure that buses are not delayed by mixed traffic congestion. A median alignment bus-only keeps buses away from busy curb-side side conflicts, where cars and trucks are parking, standing and turning. Separate rights of way may be used such as the completely elevated Xiamen BRT. Transit malls or 'bus streets' may also be created in city centers.

Off-board fare collection
Fare prepayment at the station, instead of on board the bus, eliminates the delay caused by passengers paying on board. Use of a payment card which must be touched briefly to a card-reader is also fast.

For the system to work, users can receive "credit" on the electronic cards: in this manner, passengers who have no money left on the cards can take the bus at sidewalk stops where there is no possibility to recharge these cards. This means that the balance in the card can be negative, up to two ticket fares, so passengers can take the bus in the street and recharge the card once they reach a main line station. As the card itself costs more than the maximum negative balance, the passenger has no incentive to default on negative credit. Transmilenio in Bogotá followed suit in 2014 also creating routes that can use main line stations and regular sidewalk stations, but instead of giving credit to passengers to allow boarding the bus on sidewalks, published a map readable in smart phones giving the location of a dense network of 4,000 recharging points, located in internet cafes and other business, that use a swipe-card terminal for recharging. This system has the additional benefit of diminishing queues on main line stations.

Bus priority, turning and standing restrictions
Prohibiting turns for traffic across the bus lane significantly reduces delays to the buses. Bus priority will often be provided at signalized intersections to reduce delays by extending the green phase or reducing the red phase in the required direction compared to the normal sequence. Prohibiting turns may be the most important measure for moving buses through intersections.

Platform-level boarding

The station platforms for BRT systems should be level with the bus floor for quick and easy boarding, making it fully accessible for wheelchairs, disabled passengers and baby strollers, with minimal delays.

High-level platforms for high-floored buses makes it difficult to have stops outside dedicated platforms, or to have conventional buses stop at high-level platforms, so these BRT stops are distinct from street-level bus stops. Similar to rail vehicles, there is a risk of a dangerous gap between bus and platform, and is even greater due to the nature of bus operations. Kassel curbs or other methods may be used to ease quick and safe alignment of the BRT vehicle with a platform.

A popular compromise is low-floor buses with a low step at the door, which can allow easy boarding at low-platform stops compatible with other buses. This intermediate design may be used with some low- or medium-capacity BRT systems.

The MIO system in California pioneered in 2009 the use of dual buses, with doors on the left side of the bus that are located at the height of high-level platforms, and doors on the right side that are located at curb height. These buses can use the main line with its exclusive lanes and high level platforms, located on the center of the street and thus, boarding and leaving passengers on the left side. These buses can exit the main line and use normal lanes that share with other vehicles and stop at regular stations located on sidewalks on the right side of the street.

Additional features
Groups of criteria form the BRT Standard 2016, which is updated by the Technical Committee of the BRT Standard.

High capacity vehicles

High-capacity vehicles such as articulated or even bi-articulated buses may be used, typically with multiple doors for fast entry and exit. Double-decker buses or guided buses may also be used. Advanced powertrain control may be used for a smoother ride.

Quality stations

Bottleneck BRT stations typically provide loading areas for simultaneous boarding and alighting of buses through multiple doors coordinated via displays and loudspeakers.

An example of high-quality stations include those used on TransMilenio in Bogotá since December 2000, the MIO in Cali since November 2008, Metrolinea in Bucaramanga since December 2009, Megabús in Pereira since May 2009. This design is also used in Johannesburg's Rea Vaya.

The term "station" is more flexibly applied in North America and ranges from enclosed waiting areas (Ottawa and Cleveland) to large open-sided shelters (Los Angeles and San Bernardino).

Prominent brand or identity
A unique and distinctive identity can contribute to BRT's attractiveness as an alternative to driving cars, (such as Viva, Max, TransMilenio, Metropolitano, Metronit, Select) marking stops and stations as well as the buses.

Large cities usually have big bus networks. A map showing all bus lines might be incomprehensible, and cause people to wait for low-frequency buses that may not even be running at the time they are needed. By identifying the main bus lines having high-frequency service, with a special brand and separate maps, it is easier to understand the entire network.

Public transit apps are more convenient than a static map, featuring services like trip planning, live arrival and departure times, up-to-date line schedules, local station maps, service alerts, and advisories that may affect one's current trip. Transit and Moovit are examples of apps that are available in many cities around the world. Some operators of bus rapid transit systems have developed their own apps, like Transmilenio. These apps even include all the schedules and live arrival times and stations for buses that feed the BRT, like the SITP (Sistema Integrado de Transporte Público or Public Transit Integrated System) in Bogotá.

In tunnels or subterranean structures

A special issue arises in the use of buses in metro transit structures. Since the areas where the demand for an exclusive bus right-of-way are apt to be in dense downtown areas where an above-ground structure may be unacceptable on historic, logistic, or environmental grounds, use of BRT in tunnels may not be avoidable.

Since buses are usually powered by internal combustion engines, bus metros raise ventilation issues similar to those of motor vehicle tunnels. Powerful fans typically exchange air through ventilation shafts to the surface; these are usually as remote as possible from occupied areas, to minimize the effects of noise and concentrated pollution.

A straightforward way to reduce air quality problems is to use internal combustion engines with lower emissions. The 2008 Euro V European emission standards set a limit on carbon monoxide from heavy-duty diesel engines of 1.5 g/kWh, one third of the 1992 Euro I standard. As a result, less forced ventilation will be required in tunnels to achieve the same air quality.

Another alternative is to use electric propulsion, which Seattle's Metro Bus Tunnel and Boston's Silver Line Phase II implemented. In Seattle, dual-mode (electric/diesel electric) buses manufactured by Breda were used until 2004, with the center axle driven by electric motors obtaining power from trolley wires through trolley poles in the subway, and with the rear axle driven by a conventional diesel powertrain on freeways and streets. Boston is using a similar approach, after initially using trolleybuses pending delivery of the dual-mode vehicles that was completed in 2005.

In 2004, Seattle replaced its "Transit Tunnel" fleet with diesel-electric hybrid buses, which operate similarly to hybrid cars outside the tunnel and in a low-noise, low-emissions "hush mode" (in which the diesel engine operates but does not exceed idle speed) when underground. The need to provide electric power in underground environments brings the capital and maintenance costs of such routes closer to those of light rail, and raises the question of building or eventually converting to light rail. In Seattle, the downtown transit tunnel was retrofitted for conversion to a shared hybrid-bus and light-rail facility in preparation for Seattle's Central Link Light Rail line, which opened in July 2009. In March 2019, expansion of the light rail in the tunnel moved busses back to surface streets.

Bi-articulated battery electric buses cause no problems in tunnels anymore but provide BRT capacity.

Performance

A BRT system can be measured by a number of factors. The BRT Standard was developed by the Institute for Transportation and Development Policy (ITDP) to score BRT corridors, producing a list of rated BRT corridors meeting the minimum definition of BRT. The highest rated systems received a "gold" ranking. The latest edition of the standard was published in 2016.

Other metrics used to evaluate BRT performance include:
 The vehicle headway is the average time interval between vehicles on the same line. Buses can operate at headways of 10 seconds or less, but average headways on TransMilenio at busy intersections are 13 seconds, 14 seconds for the busiest section of the Metrobus (Istanbul), 7 seconds in Belo Horizonte, 6 seconds in Rio de Janeiro.
 Vehicle capacity, which can range from 50 passengers for a conventional bus up to some 300 for a bi-articulated vehicle or 500.
 The effectiveness of the stations to handle passenger demand. High volumes of passengers on vehicles require large bus stations and more boarding areas at busy interchange points. This is the standard bottleneck of BRT (and HRT).
 The effectiveness of the feeder system: can these deliver people to stations at the required speed?
 Local passenger demand. Without enough local demand for travel, the capacity will not be used.

Based on this data, the minimum headway and maximum current vehicle capacities, the theoretical maximum throughput measured in passengers per hour per direction (PPHPD) for a single traffic lane is some 150,000 passengers per hour (250 passengers per vehicle, one vehicle every 6 seconds). In real world conditions BRT Rio (de Janeiro, BRS Presidente Vargas) with 65.000 PPHPD holds the record,  TransMilenio Bogotá and Metrobus Istanbul perform 49,000 – 45,000 PPHPD,  most other busy systems operating in the 15,000 to 25,000 range.

Research of the Institute for Transportation and Development Policy (ITDP) shows a capacity ranking of MRT modes, based on reported performance of 14 LRT systems, 14 HRT systems (just 1-track +  3 2-track-systems "highest capacity") and 56 BRT systems.

The study concludes, that BRT-"capacity on TransMilenio exceeds all but the highest capacity HRT systems, and it far exceeds the highest LRT system."

Performance data of 84 systems show

 37,700 passengers in peak hour per direction (PPHPD) in the best BRT system
 36,000 in the best 1-track-HRT system
 13,400 in the best LRT system

More topical are these BRT data

 45,000 PPHPD in a 1-lane-system using articulated buses (2020 in Istanbul)
 320 busses per hour per direction in the corridor Nossa Senhora de Copacabana in Rio de Janeiro for the year 2014 meaning a bus every 11 seconds.
 65,400 PPHPD in 600 buses in the corridor Presidente Vargas in Rio de Janeiro for the years 2012 resp. 2014, which means 10 buses per minute or a bus every 6 seconds.

Comparison with light rail

After the first BRT system opened in 1971, cities were slow to adopt BRT because they believed that the capacity of BRT was limited to about 12,000 passengers per hour traveling in a given direction during peak demand. While this is a capacity rarely needed in the US (12,000 is more typical as a total daily ridership), in the developing world this capacity constraint (or rumor of a capacity constraint) was a significant argument in favor of heavy rail metro investments in some venues.

When TransMilenio opened in 2000, it changed the paradigm by giving buses a passing lane at each station stop and introducing express services within the BRT infrastructure. These innovations increased the maximum achieved capacity of a BRT system to 35,000 passengers per hour. The single-lane roads of Istanbul Metrobus had been frequently blocked by Phileas buses breaking down, causing delays for all the buses in a single direction. After focusing on Mercedes-Benz buses, capacity increased to 45,000 pph. Light rail, by comparison, has reported passenger capacities between 3,500 pph (mainly street running) to 19,000 pph (fully grade-separated).

There are conditions that favor light rail over BRT, but they are fairly narrow. These conditions are a corridor with only one available lane in each direction, more than 16,000 passengers per direction per hour but less than 20,000, and a long block length, because the train cannot block intersections. These conditions are rare, but in that specific instance, light rail might have a minimal operational advantage.

The United States Government Accountability Office (U.S. GAO) summarized in the report "Mass Transit – Bus Rapid Transit Shows Promise", the U.S. Federal Transit Administration (FTA) provided funding for the construction of HRT and of LRT at that time, but not of BRT. The FTA funding of BRT "rather focuses on obtaining and sharing information on projects being pursued by local transit agencies". In spite of this different funding the capital costs of BRT systems were lower in many US communities than those of LRT systems and performance often similar. The GAO stated, BRT systems were generally more flexible compared to LRT and faster. "While transit officials noted a public bias toward Light Rail,
research has found that riders have no preference for rail over bus when service characteristics are equal."

Comparison with heavy rail
Fjellstrom/Wright distributed a map of the mid-term goal to expand Bogota's BRT system, TransMilenio, so that 85% of the city's 7 million inhabitants live within 500m distance to a TransMileneo line. Such an expansion program would be unrealistic for a rail-based MRT-system, according to Bogota's mayor.

An additional use of BRT is the replacement of heavy rail services, due to infrastructure damage, reduced ridership, or a combination of both where lower maintenance costs are desired while taking advantage of an existing dedicated right of way. One such system in Japan consists of portions of the JR East Kesennuma and Ofuanto Lines, which were catastrophically damaged during the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami, and later repaired as a bus lane over the same right of way, providing improved service with much lower restoration and maintenance costs. Another system set to open in August 2023 is a portion of the JR Kyushu Hitahikosan Line, which was damaged due to torrential rain in 2017. In both cases, ridership had dropped considerably since the lines opened, and the higher capacity of a rail line is no longer needed or cost-effective compared to buses on the same alignments.

Comparison with conventional bus services

Conventional scheduled bus services use general traffic lanes, which can be slow due to traffic congestion, and the speed of bus services is further reduced by long dwell times.

In 2013, the New York City authorities noted that buses on 34th Street, which carried 33,000 bus riders a day on local and express routes, traveled at , only slightly faster than walking pace. Even despite the implementation of Select Bus Service (New York City's version of a bus rapid transit system), dedicated bus lanes, and traffic cameras on the 34th Street corridor, buses on the corridor were still found to travel at an average of 4.5 mph.

In the 1960s, Reuben Smeed predicted that the average speed of traffic in central London would be  without other disincentives such as road pricing, based on the theory that this was the minimum speed that people will tolerate. When the London congestion charge was introduced in 2003, the average traffic speed was indeed  which was the highest speed since the 1970s. By way of contrast, typical speeds of BRT systems range from .

Cost

The capital cost of implementing BRT is lower than for light rail: A study by the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) from 2000 found that the average capital cost per mile for busways was $13.5 million while light rail average cost was $34.8 million. The total investment varies considerably due to factors such as cost of the roadway, amount of grade separation, station structures and traffic signal systems.

In the year 2003 a study edited by the German GTZ compared various MRT systems all over the world and concluded ″Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) can provide high-quality, metro-like transit service at a fraction of the cost of other options″.

In the year 2013 the analysis of a database of nineteen LRT projects, twenty-six HRT projects,  and forty-two BRT projects specified "In higher income countries ...  an HRT alternative is likely to cost up to 40 times as much as a BRT alternative". and a surface LRT alternative about 4 times that of a BRT alternative.

Operational cost of running a BRT system is generally lower than light rail, though the exact comparison varies, and labor costs depend heavily on wages, which vary between countries. For the same level of ridership and demand, higher labor costs in the developed world relative to developing countries will tend to encourage developed world transit operators to prefer operate services with larger but less frequent vehicles. This will allow the service to achieve the same capacity while minimizing the number of drivers. This may come as a hidden cost to passengers in lower demand routes who experience significantly lower frequencies and longer waiting times and limit gain of ridership.

In the study done by the U.S. GAO, BRT systems usually had lower cost as well based on "operating cost per vehicle hour", as on "operating cost per revenue mile", and on "operating cost per passenger trip", mainly because of lower vehicle cost and lower infrastructure cost.

An ambitious light rail system runs partly grade separated (e.g. underground), which gives free right-of-way and much faster traffic compared to passing the traffic signals needed in a surface level system. Underground BRT was suggested as early as 1954.  As long as most buses still run on diesel, air quality can become a significant concern in tunnels, but the Downtown Seattle Transit Tunnel is an example of using hybrid buses, which switch to overhead electric propulsion while they are underground, eliminating diesel emissions and reducing fuel usage. Alternatives are elevated busways or - more expensive - elevated railways.

Criticism
BRT systems have been widely promoted by non-governmental organizations such as the Shell-funded EMBARQ program, Rockefeller Foundation and Institute for Transportation and Development Policy (ITDP), whose consultant pool includes the former mayor of Bogota (Colombia), Enrique Peñalosa (former president of ITDP).

Supported by contributions of bus-producing companies such as Volvo, the ITDP not only established a proposed "standard" for BRT system implementation, but developed intensive lobby activities around the world to convince local governments to select BRT systems over rail-based transportation models (subways, light trains, etc.).

"Fake" BRT systems (BRT creep)

Bus rapid transit creep is a phenomenon commonly defined as a bus rapid transit (BRT) system that fails to meet the requirements to be considered "true BRT". These systems are often marketed as a fully realized bus rapid transit system, but end up being described as more of an improvement to regular bus service by proponents of the "BRT creep" term. Notably, the Institute for Transportation and Development Policy (ITDP) published several guidelines in an attempt to define what constitutes the term of "true BRT", known as the BRT Standard, in an attempt to avert this phenomenon.

The most extreme versions of BRT creep lead to systems that cannot even truly be recognized as "Bus Rapid Transit". For example, a rating from the ITDP determined that the Boston Silver Line was best classified as "Not BRT" after local decision makers gradually decided to do away with most BRT-specific features. The study also evaluates New York City's Select Bus Service (which is supposed to be BRT-standard) as "Not BRT".

Environmental issues

Unlike electric-powered trains commonly used in rapid transit and light rail systems, bus rapid transit often uses diesel- or gasoline-fueled engines. The typical bus diesel engine causes noticeable levels of air pollution, noise and vibration. It is noted however that BRT can still provide significant environmental benefits over private cars. In addition, BRT systems can replace an inefficient conventional bus network for more efficient, faster and less polluting BRT buses. For example, Bogotá previously used 2,700 conventional buses providing transportation to 1.6 million passengers daily, while in 2013 TransMilenio transported 1.9 million passengers using only 630 BRT buses, a fleet less than a quarter in size of the old fleet, that circulates at twice the speed, with a huge reduction in air pollution.

To reduce direct emissions some systems use alternative forms of traction such as electric or hybrid engines. BRT systems can use trolleybuses to lower air pollution and noise emissions such as those in Beijing and Quito. The price penalty of installing overhead lines could be offset by the environmental benefits and potential for savings from centrally generated electricity, especially in cities where electricity is less expensive than other fuel sources. Trolleybus electrical systems can be potentially reused for future light rail conversion. TransJakarta buses use cleaner compressed natural gas-fueled engines, while Bogotá started to use hybrid buses in 2012; these hybrid systems use regenerative braking to charge batteries when the bus stops and then use electric motors to propel the bus up to 40 km/h, then automatically switching to the diesel engine for higher speeds, which allows for considerable savings in fuel consumption and pollutant dispersion.

Overcrowding and poor quality service

Many BRT systems suffer from overcrowding in buses and stations as well as long wait times for buses. In Santiago de Chile, the average of the system is six passengers per square meter () inside vehicles. Users have reported days where the buses take too long to arrive, and are too overcrowded to accept new passengers. As of June 2017, the system has an approval rating of 15% among commuters, and it has lost 27% of its passengers, who have turned mostly to cars.

In Bogotá the overcrowding was even worse; the average of TransMilenio was eight passengers per square meter (). Only 29% felt satisfied with the system. The data also showed that 23% of the citizens agreed with building more TransMilenio lines, in contrast of the 42% who considered that a rapid transit system should be built. Several cases of sexual assault had been reported by female users in TransMilenio. According to a 2012 survey made by the secretary of the woman of Bogota, 64% of women said they had been victims of sexual assault in the system. The system had even been ranked as the most dangerous transport for women. The poor quality of the system had occasioned an increment in the number of cars and motorcycles in the city; citizens preferred these transport means over TransMilenio. According to official data, the number of cars increased from approximately 666,000 in 2005 to 1,586,700 in 2016. The number of motorcycles was also growing, with 660,000 sold in Bogota in 2013, two times the number of cars sold.At the end of 2018 Transmilenio ordered 1383 new buses as a replacement of the older ones in service. 52% were compressed natural gas (CNG) buses made by Scania with Euro 6 emission rating, 48% were diesel engine made by Volvo with Euro 5 emission rating. More (or renewed?) orders have produced an impressive result: "To improve public and environmental health, the City of Bogotá has assembled a fleet of 1,485 electric buses for its public transportation system—placing the city among the three largest e-bus fleets outside of China."In the year 2022 Bogotá has won the Sustainable Transport Award, thanks to their BRT system and their urban cycling strategy.

The system in Jakarta had also been experiencing issues, with complaints of overcrowding in buses and stations and low frequency of the routes. There were extensive safety concerns as well; rampant sexual harassment has been reported, and the fire safety of the buses has been under scrutiny after one of the buses, a Zhongtong imported from China, suddenly and spontaneously caught on fire. The quality of the service was so bad that the then-governor of Jakarta, Basuki Tjahaja Purnama, in March 2015 publicly apologized for the poor performance of the system.

Failures and reversals

A criticism of BRT systems was that they might not accomplish their promise of an efficient, rapid flow of passengers along their dedicated bus lanes. The unpopularity of Delhi's BRT(2016) and the riots and spontaneous user demonstrations in Bogotá(2016) raised doubts about the ability of BRTs to tackle issues such as traffic jams. Overcrowded stations and BRT vehicles might fail to keep pace with increased ridership. The speed of increased BRT ridership confirms the research to (the myth of) a general preference for rail over bus, see the end of chapter "Comparison with light rail". Bogota however has regained pace according to the Sustainable Transport Award 2022.

The lack of permanence of BRT has also been criticized, with some arguing that BRT systems can be used as an excuse to build roads that others later try to convert for use by non-BRT vehicles. Examples of this can be found in Delhi, where a BRT system was scrapped, and in Aspen, Colorado, where drivers are lobbying the government to allow mixed-use traffic in former BRT lanes as of 2017, although in other US cities, such as Albuquerque, New Mexico, the opposite is true.

Possible lack of permanence is as well part of a reason for use BRT (chapter above): The system is more flexible.

Experts also attribute a failure of BRT to land use structure. Some Cities that are sprawled and have no mixed use have poor ridership to make BRT economically viable. In Africa, the African Urban Institute criticized the viability of ongoing BRTs across the continent.

Impact
A 2018 study found that the introduction of a BRT network in Mexico City reduced air pollution (emissions of CO, NOX, and PM10).

See also

 Autonomous Rail Rapid Transit
 Bus lane
 Park and Ride
 List of bus rapid transit systems
 Quality Bus Corridor
 Queue jump
 Sustainable transport
 Traffic engineering (transportation)
 Transit bus
 Transit Elevated Bus

References

Further reading
Ghadirifaraz, B., Vaziri, M., Safa, A., & Barikrou, N. (2017). A Statistical Appraisal of Bus Rapid Transit Based on Passengers Satisfaction and Priority Case Study: Isfahan City, Iran (No. 17-05108).
 Poku-Boansi, M and Marsden, G  (2018) Bus Rapid Transit Systems as a Governance Reform Project. Journal of Transport Geography, 70. pp. 193–202.  DOI: Bus rapid transit systems as a governance reform project

External links

General information
 The BRT Standard 2014 Edition Institute for Transportation and Development Policy
 Bus Rapid Transit Planning Guide (2007) A very comprehensive 800 guide to creating a successful BRT system by the Institute for Transportation and Development Policy (available in English, Spanish and Portuguese)
 Bus Rapid Transit, Volume 1: Case Studies in Bus Rapid Transit Transportation Research Board
 Bus Rapid Transit, Volume 2: Implementation Guidelines Transportation Research Board

 Across Latitudes and Cultures Bus Rapid Transit An international Centre of Excellence for BRT development
 Transit Capacity and Quality of Service Manual Transportation Research Board
 BRT Technologies: Assisting Drivers Operating Buses on Road Shoulders. University of Minnesota Center for Transportation Studies, Department of Mechanical Engineering

Country-specific information
 Recapturing Global Leadership in Bus Rapid Transit – A Survey of Select U.S. Cities (available for download in pdf) Institute for Transportation & Development Policy (May 2011)

 Bus Rapid Transit Shows Promise  U.S. General Accounting Office
 The National BRT Institute (USA)

Databases
 Global BRT Data Database of Bus Rapid Transit systems around the world

Bus terminology
Public transport by mode
Sustainable transport
Transportation planning
Sustainable urban planning
Types of bus service

Bus rapid transit