Buses World News: December 2004

TECHNOLOGY - USA - GPS for JTA Buses

Jacksonville,FL,USA - WTEV - 12/3/2004 -- Jacksonville Transit Authority buses are getting a high tech safety boostin the form of GPS systems. Although regular bus riders .... the mother of two was happy to hear there would be another line of defense against transit crime for her and her family: “[GPS is] a good idea. What if somebody attacked the driver and made him drive somewhere else?”

TECHNOLOGY - UK - JUST FOR BUSES, £10M ROAD

Mile-long link to beat traffic
Glasgow,Scotland,UK - Glasgow Daily Record, By Marie Sharp - Dec 3 2004 -- ... Bus bosses have splashed out £5million on futuristic buses modified with rubber 'guide arms' to run along the concrete edges of the road.... The aim is to prevent drivers taking sneaky shortcuts throughbus lanes by building a separate road which only buses can use. ...

TECHNOLOGY - UK - SOLAR power is bright idea for bus shelters

Edinburgh,Scotland,UK - The Scotsman, by BRIAN FERGUSON - 2 Dec 2004 -- IT'S the latest bright idea aimed at luring people on to the Capital's buses. In a new initiative, solar-powered bus shelters that light up when a passenger arrives ..... The eco-friendly scheme promises to bring an end to the difficulty of trying to read bus timetables after dark. ... It is also aimed at increasing both the security of passengers and making them more visible to bus drivers.

SALES - USA - NEW Buses To Improve Private Line Service

Western Queens Gazette - Astoria,NY,USA - December 2, 2004 -- ... to take over private bus lines or improve service for 400,000 customers,the mayor responded last week with the announcement that 425 new buses for those lines ... The lines involved are Jamaica Buses, Command Buses, Triboro Coach Corporation, Green Bus lines, Queens Surface Corporation, Liberty Lines Express and New York Bus Service.

ECOLOGY - UK - Electric trams, similar levels of air pollution as diesel buses

Edinburgh,Scotland,UK - The Scotsman - 1 Dec 2004 -- EDINBURGH’S trams could run on wind or water power, city council officials revealed yesterday. Renewable-energy sources are being investigated to help to reduce the environmental impact of the proposed light rail network. ... The Holyrood committee heard that electric trams caused similar levelsof air pollution as diesel buses, due to power-station emissions....

SALES - INDIA - VOLVO keen to roll out luxury buses in Bengal

KOLKATA,India - Times of India,by SUBHRO NIYOGI - NOV 30, 2004 -- Premier coach manufacturer Volvo India is preparing for talks with state transport corporations in the eastern region to sell its luxury buses to ply on the high-frequency, long-distance routes.... in Kolkata. The city has some of the largest Volvo truck fleet operators in the country with over a 100 engaged in construction work at New Town, Rajarhat and others at coal and mineral mines in the region.

PRODUCTION - CHINA, world's bus-making hub

Mumbai,India - Rediff - November 27, 2004 -- China is all set to become a major bus manufacturing centre of the world with its production accounting for 22.6 per cent of the world's annual output last year, ..... "China's bus production is expected to maintain a rapid growth momentum in the next five years to come," said Luc Glorieux, secretary-general of BAAV, a non-governmental bus and coach operators union headquartered in Europe....

TRANSPORT- UK - More and more get on the buses

Peterborough,England,UK - Peterborough Evening Telegraph - 26 November 2004 -- Three years ago, there were just over nine million passenger journeys in the city each year, and, although the target is to increase that figure to 9.6 million, the council is in line to hit the 10 million mark by April..... The news comes after new bus services offering transport into the city centre every 10 minutes were launched in April this year, thanks to a £1.8 million investment.... Stagecoach introduced a fleet of 20 new, low-floor Citi buses on tworoutes covering the Bretton, Gunthorpe, Paston, Park Farm and Yaxley areas....

UK - REFERENDUM on the transport

How would work the "load of the congestión"?
Edinburgh, Scotland, UK - The City of Edinburgh Council - 26 Nov 2004 -- You are elegible you to vote? If it is approved in the referendum, the "load of the congestión" will begin the 2006. There would be a L$2 honorarium to the day, does not concern whichever times a vehicle parked next to the cord, the load would be only applied to the entrance trips... Esteem that the "load of the congestión" will raise to L$760 million in 20 years. The advice must use this yield to only finance improvements of the transport....

PRODUCTION - CHINA's GREENCOOL jumps on to Europe buses

Greencool buys European auto parts plants
Financial Times - London,England,UK - 27 Nov 2004 -- ... But a Greencool executive said the company was also considering setting up a plant in Britain or eastern Europe in the next year or two to sell buses in Europe ...

Beijing, CHINA - Beijing Time - 2004-11-26 -- China's Greencool Enterprise Development Company Limited has acquired an auto parts manufacturing plant in France and an auto designer in UK.
The purchase of 100 percent of the two plants makes Greencool one of the world's largest auto parts suppliers and one of the world's top car designers. The Chinese company also gains permanent use rights for 11 patents in auto tube pieces.

U. KINGDOM - Cars congestions, one solution

BUSES on standby for passenger surge
Edinburgh,Scotland,UK - The Scotsman, bY ALASTAIR DALTON - 26 Nov 2004 -- A FLEET of new buses will be put on standby to cope with the influx of extra passengers when Edinburgh’s congestion charging starts because transport managers cannot predict on which routes commuters will appear.... expect one third of motorists who currently drive into the city centre across the planned all-day inner charging cordon will leave their cars at home.... confident that the planned bus improvements will accommodate all those who switch from their cars when the £2-a-day toll starts in 2006.

TRANSPORT STRATEGY - AUSTRALIA: Goes off the rails

Government's .... has not been matched by a workable public transport policy....
Sydney,New South Wales,Australia - Sydney Morning Herald, By Adele Horin - - November 27, 2004 -- Sydney's population grows by almost 1000 a week but the train system isat a standstill, the buses crawl at horse-and-buggy pace through the CBD, and the transport duo, are implacably opposed to light rail .... It is easy to build tollways; ..... and when people are killed on them, it is seen as their own fault not the Government's..... It is harder to build an efficient public transport system ..... Other cities manage it.... Denver voted for a sales tax to raise $US8 billion for new light rail lines.... dozens of other car-crazy American cities have recently embraced public transport systems..... The US Federal Government, unlike our own, now directs money to urban transit instead of national highways. Closer to home, the Western Australian Government has reversed the old ratio and is now spending $5 on public transport for every $1 on roads....

TECHNOLOGY INDIA - BUSES to enter digital domain

BANGALORE,India - Times of India, by MINI JOSEPH TEJASWI - NOVEMBER 25, 2004 -- The state’s over 16,000 buses are going hep and high-tech. Karnataka government is planning to introduce digital multi-language destination displays in BMTC and KSRTC buses..... The eight-month long first phase will cover over 1000 Parisara Vahini buses .... the rest of the fleet will get the facility within a couple of years, as and when a new bus is introduced on the road. BMTC alone scraps over 400 buses a year.

TECNOLOGY - ISRAEL develops buses with anti-terror system

BEIJING, CHINA - Xinhuanet - Nov. 25, 2004 -- Israel's military has developed an advanced protection system for public buses against suicide bombers. The system, which is creating international interest, consists of a front door barrier allowing the driver to stop people from getting on the bus, a one-way back door, and a loudspeaker.....

SALES - IRAN-KHODRO to export 200 buses to Azerbaijan

Iran - IranMania News - November 25, 2004 -- LONDON, UK - Iran car manufacturing giant Iran-Khodro Industrial Group said the company has signed a contract with Azerbaijan to exports over 200 diesel-powered buses to the caucuses state. .... In the first phase of the agreement and after the opening of the line of credit (LC) and other bureaucratic steps carried out by the Azeri side, another 50 buses will be exported to the country in the next month, .....

SALES - BANGLADESH import 95 more VOLVO buses worth Tk 1.5b

BangladeshState - Financial Express.bd - 11/26/2004 -- State-owned Bangladesh Road Transport Corporation (BRTC) has taken a move to import 95 Volvo buses worth T$k 1.5 billion next year, to offer better services to the passengers. Presently BRTC is operating 50 Volvo buses in the city. "The services of the Volvo buses have been acclaimed by passengers and we cannot fulfil their demands due to lack of such buses," .....

SAUDI ARAB - SAPTCO to receive 450 Daimler buses-KSA

SAUDI ARAB - Saudi Economic Survey/ MENAFEN - 24/11/2004 -- The Saudi Public Transport Co. (SAPTCO) has announced that the company is going to receive 450 buses from the German-American firm Daimler-Chrysler .... The order includes 300 tourist buses and 150 buses to be operated within the cities of the Kingdom to transport commuters.... The cost of the total package of 450 buses is said to be S$R 300 million. SAPTCO operates a fleet of about 3000 high quality buses to carry passengers from city to city as well .....

TECHNOLOGY CHINA - DIMETHYL Ether Buses in Shanghai

USA - Green Car Congress - November 21, 2004 -- Shanghai Daily -- Researchers at Shanghai Jiao Tong University are developing a city transit bus that uses dimethyl ether (DME) as a fuel. DME is a clean-burning (completely sootless) synthetic fuel that can substitute for conventional diesel, liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) or be reformed into hydrogen for fuel cells. As a diesel fuel replacement it reduces NOx emissions 90% and features high cetane. A cetane number marks the ignition quality of a diesel fuel by measuring the delay between the start of injection and combustion. A high cetane number has a shorter delay period and is more desirable. Part of the interest in DME stems from the ability to produce it from a number of feedstocks: coal, natural gas, biomass. It is of particular interest to countries such as Japan and China.

SALES INDIA - BUS and truck sales zoom in April-October 2004

New Delhi,India - Hindustan Times/Press Trust of India - November 21, 2004 -- Cheered by Tata Motors and Swaraj Mazda, commercial vehicle sales surged by 27.2 per cent during the first seven months of this fiscal year.... A total of 167,274 buses and trucks were sold during April-October 2004 over the same period last year, data compiled by the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers or SIAM showed.

MALAYSIA - 4,000 express buses, 80,000 summonses

PUTRAJAYA,Malaysia- The Malaysia Star, BY DEVID RAJAH - November 20, 2004 -- Over 4,000 express buses – effectively the entire fleet of express buses in the country – will be taken off the road if they do not respond to some 80,000 traffic summons notices totalling R$M24mil.... said the buses would be blacklisted and their owners barred from renewing their road tax until all the notices were cleared...

NORWAY - NEW buses can't handle winter

Oslo,Norway - Aftenposten - 19 Nov 2004 -- ... country. But Oslo can expect regular problems with their new buses.... "None of the new low-bottomed buses are suited to have tirechains. It is difficult to get ..."

AFRICA - First consignment for a total of 74 buses and spare parts from Spain

Lifeline for GPTC transport system negotiated Pegaso buses, spare parts expected from Spain in december
Banjul, AFRICA - The Independent /All Africa.com - November 19, 2004 -- In a move that will provide a lifeline for an almost defunct transport system at the Gambia Public Transport Cooperation (GPTC), arrangements have been made to ship the first consignment for a total of 74 buses and spare parts from Spain by the middle of next month.

TECHNOLOGY USA - Helps blind ride buses, MAX

People who are blind or visually impaired can now find their way
Hillsboro,OR,USA -Hillsboro Argus - November 18, 2004 -- TheTriMet system with new technology unveiled this week..... Downloadable software allows them to receive voice or Braille instructions on how to get to any of 7,700 bus stops and 64 MAX stations..... TriMet was able to easily incorporate its transit information with the BrailleNote system.

HYBRIDS HAWAI, USA - City’s hybrid buses have smooth ride in debut

About 3,000 to 3,500 riders hop on the Bus Rapid Transit route
Honolulu,HI,USA - Honolulu Star.Bulletin, By Rosemarie Bernardo - 2004/11/19
-- Bus rider Cuse Sananap said he can't wait to ride the city's new hybrid electric buses again.
"It's the best," said Sananap, who stepped out of one of the sleek-looking buses at Ala Moana Center yesterday afternoon. "It's very enjoyable." ...... An estimated 3,000 to 3,500 passengers rode the hybrid electric- and gas-powered buses, dubbed TheTransit, in the first 12 hours ....