Australia , after the replacement of
trams by
buses (1962) A permanent or temporary rail replacement service change is often referred to as
bustitution. By 1949, there were 28 buses and, by 1959, there were more than 50. The
Sydney Metro north-west line used single-deck buses late at night from Wednesdays to Sundays, operating a red Metro bus-like service with a frequency of approximately every 10 minutes until November 2019. That measure was in place since the line was deemed "ready" ten months ahead of schedule. On the
Queensland Rail network, to relieve congestion on the single tracked
Sunshine Coast line, the railway service is supplemented by a bus service operated by
Kangaroo Bus Lines on weekdays between
Caboolture and
Nambour as route 649.
NSW TrainLink,
Transwa and
V/Line all introduced extensive networks in
New South Wales,
Western Australia and
Victoria in the 1970s and the 1980s that replaced regional trains.
Canada Via Rail, the operator of the national passenger rail network, also uses the term
bustitution to refer to replacement of railway services with buses.
Japan , in
Minamifurano,
Hokkaido (September 2021) Buses have replaced trains when railway services must be suspended because of disaster, accident, economics or engineering works. Notably, in some cases, those rail lines are closed permanently and some of the former
rail rights-of-way are converted into bus rights-of-way to provide grade-separated
bus rapid transit service.
New Zealand When
train services operated by
Auckland One Rail in
Auckland are replaced by a bus, the resulting service is called
Rail Bus. Historically,
New Zealand Railways Road Services replaced many train routes with buses.
Singapore An incident occurred on 7 July 2015 after a
mass shutdown on the
North–South and
East–West lines caused by a power system failure. The operator
SMRT and rival
SBS Transit did not activate bus bridging, but made all bus services free islandwide because of the sheer scale of the disruptions. The Land Transport Authority made public transport available for any bus services passing MRT stations that were affected during the train disruptions and, during a massive disruption affecting at least two lines, bus travel islandwide was made free. A report published in 2018 identified successful, and surviving, examples of this policy, including: • The present
Excel route operated by
First Eastern Counties between
Norwich and
Peterborough • The
Brighton & Hove Regency Route between
Brighton and
Tunbridge Wells, which partly replaces a route closed by the cuts. Rail replacement bus services have been used to operate
parliamentary train services. • When
Silverlink services between and were withdrawn in March 1996, railway services were replaced by buses to avoid the legal complications and costs of actual closure. The service was withdrawn when the branch was formally closed in September 2003. • After the withdrawal of
Central Trains' services between and , to facilitate the
West Coast Main Line upgrade at the request of the
Strategic Rail Authority in May 2003,
BakerBus route X1 was introduced to serve , , and . When the train service was reintroduced by
London Midland in December 2008, only Stone regained a rail service and the other stations continued to be served by route X1. In October 2017, the
Department for Transport (DfT) declared Norton Bridge station closed, but continued the partial funding of the replacement bus service until March 2019. As of 2023, Barlaston and Wedgwood stations continue to be served by
D&G Bus replacement route 100. The DfT funds the contractual service while it seeks a solution to demands for the restoration of the train service. The bustitution has continued for 21 years, as of 2025. • After the withdrawal of services by
Arriva CrossCountry between and in December 2008, which provided the only passenger services on three short sections of line between and , a replacement weekly bus service was introduced. The service ceased in June 2013, after a formal closure process had been completed.
United States provides shuttle service in
the Bronx because of construction on the
New York City Subway Rail replacement bus services occurred on a large scale after the dismantling of the
street railway systems of many cities in the mid-20th century. Replacement of existing rail services with buses after
World War II is one of the largest reasons why so few cities have
rapid transit systems. The temporary substitution of buses for trains may be done with
Amtrak's
Amtrak Thruway service. The
G Line (formerly the Orange Line) of the
Los Angeles Metro runs along a paved closed course on the easement from the original
Southern Pacific Railroad Burbank line, which was later used by the
Pacific Electric Railway. It may eventually be converted back to
light rail with Measure M funding, but that is not currently scheduled to happen until around 2050. ==Urban transit==