>>1447271You go to a station kind of like a tram superstop/light rail stop. There are platforms and the road is 4 lanes (2 express/2 stopping) wide. Not all buses stop at all stations.
You wait at the end of the platform if no buses are coming. You have to wave the bus down to make it stop, since it might not be your route or you might just be at the platform for other reasons, like checking the timetable/maps etc.
There's usually an arrivals board showing you what route numbers, destinations and times stuff is going to arrive. They have some of these in specific bus-heavy parts of Melbourne / important stops I think.
So you hail the driver and get on board and touch your go card on. Off-peak you can buy a paper ticket; at peak times it's not allowed and you have to have a gocard so you're not wasting commuters' time. Note: this is just the rules I know, I've never actually tried to buy a ticket at peak though for a couple of weeks I did technically use the busway, not the busiest section though. After that the bus takes off pretty quickly and it's like a really quiet 2-lane road for buses most of the way. Bus gets up and goes super quick. But it's still save to stand, the bus driver decelerates smoothly. There are tunnels as well. Eventually, a lot of routes exit the busway and become normal suburban buses or express BUZ services.
The whole thing works alright until peak time when there's a flood of buses going through and too many people wanting to get on them. It ideally should be upgraded to mixed light rail/bus service imo.
