Buses World News
In brief: Worldwide montly news & informations about Buses, Busmakers, Passengers' and the Transport Industry
BUS SERVICES SHUTS DOWN * USA
* DC / USA - FMCSA shuts down another Chinatown bus service
Washington,DC,USA -Land Line, by Greg Grisolano -11 March 2013: -- For the second time in nearly as many weeks, a federal regulatory agency has issued a shutdown order for a regional bus service accused of flagrantly flouting safety standards... The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration issued an imminent hazard order on Friday, stopping operations for Ming An Inc., a New York City-based interstate bus company. Ming An provided service from the Big Apple to many southern cities along the Eastern Seaboard... Among the numerous violations outlined in the stop order, Ming An was cited for failing to conduct pre-employment drug and alcohol testing; employing drivers without CDLs; allowing drivers who are not medically certified to drive; failure to prepare records of duty status; failure to require drivers to prepare vehicle inspection reports; and failure to annually inspect the vehicles...
* DC - FMCSA shuts down Massachusetts van service for safety violations
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Washington,DC,USA -Land Line, by Greg Grisolano -14 March 2013: -- A Massachusetts bus company offering interstate shuttle services to Connecticut and New York City has been ordered to suspend service for failing to meet federal safety regulations... Santana Busline Inc., of Springfield, MA, was declared to be an imminent hazard to public safety by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration... Investigators found that Santana Busline “failed to ensure that its drivers comply with hours-of-service requirements, allowed unqualified drivers to operate its vehicles in an unsafe manner, failed to conduct periodic vehicle safety inspections, failed to properly maintain and repair vehicles as required by federal regulations, and knowingly dispatched vehicles with safety defects” according to the release... The company had been operating an unmarked 15-passenger van service between Springfield, Hartford, CT, and New York City...
* Montana - Feds shut down bus company
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Billings,MONT,USA -Associated Press –Mar 23, 2013: -- A spokeswoman for a Montana-based bus company says workers are scrambling to get customers to their destinations after federal authorities shut Rimrock Stages... Kjersten Forseth says alternate transportation was being sought Saturday for an unknown number of stranded passengers. She says the company serves Montana and North Dakota and typically has about 100 passengers on any given day on its 13 buses... One of the company's buses crashed on icy Interstate 90 in Montana in January 2012, killing two people and injuring more than 30 others... Forseth says U.S. Department of Transportation's Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration ordered the company to stop hauling passengers late Friday following an inspection at the company's headquarters in Billings.
She didn't have details concerning reasons for the shutdown and the federal agency's website didn't list the company Saturday...Labels: shuts down
ELECTRIC BUSES * China
* China - Electric vehicle consortium signs bus agreements eith Poland
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Warsaw,Poland -Busworld (Belgium) -28 Feb 2013: -- A Chinese electric vehicle consortium led by the Beijing Institute of Technology has signed agreements to help develop an electric bus network in Poland. According to the agreements signed with Warsaw University of Technology and Tauron Polska Energia SA - the largest Polish electric power company - the Chinese side and Tauron will establish an electric vehicle public transportation system in Poland in the first phase... Six electric buses with a platform developed by Beijing Institute of Technology, including a power battery swapping system, a battery charging and discharging station, and an emergency service system, will be made for the two-year trial project in Poland... Six charging and swapping stations will later be set up in five Polish cities, with 780 purely electric buses in operation... As one of the earliest research units to develop a commercial purely electric vehicle power system platform, BIT has cooperated with more than 10 Chinese automobile companies and on the operation of electric buses at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, Shanghai Expo, Guangzhou Asian Games, and the Chinese government's 10-city 1,000-electric vehicle program...
* China - Hight costs threaten Beijing's E-bus Line
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Beijing,China -Busworld (Belgium) -1 March 2013: -- In China’s plan to promote sustainable mobility, electrifying city buses is a priority... Beijing first deployed all-electric buses powered by on-board batteries in 2001... Charging facilities were built at the Beitucheng station, close to the park, which remains to this day the only place in the city where e-buses can get replenished.
Of the 50 buses, built by Jinghua Bus with e-drive systems supplied by China Southern Rail (CSR), over a dozen had retired by mid-2011. The remaining fleet was transferred to Line 90, which has a loop of 31km and runs through the Tiananmen Square.
Beijing’s plan to revive and expand the fleet by adding 50 more e-buses, built by Foton this time, has so far failed largely because there is no money or place to build new charging stations...
* Iran - Builds Middle East first hybrid electric bus
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Tehran,Iran -Busworld -11 March 2013: -- The Middle East's first hybrid electric bus was built jointly by Iran's Isfahan University of Technology and Tehran University... Mohsen Esfahanian, the project's manager, said that the bus's power consumption is 30 per cent less than regular buses... It also pollutes the air 50 percent less than the other buses, he added... A hybrid electric bus combines a conventional internal combustion engine propulsion system with an electric propulsion system... These types of buses normally use a Diesel-electric powertrain and are also known as hybrid Diesel-electric buses... The introduction of hybrid electric vehicles and other green vehicles for purposes of public transport forms a part of sustainable transport schemes...Labels: electric buses makers
BUSMAKERS NEWS * WORLDWIDE
* India - Scania Metrolink available in three versions on the Indian market
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Bangalore,India -Busworld (Belgium) -26 Feb 2013: -- The Scania Metrolink will be produced in the Scania Bus Factory in Bangalore in India from early 2014. While waiting for this Scania factory to be ready, Scania India is building some vehicles with a trusted partner in Malaysia, as they describe it – being Gemilang Coachwork, with which Scania already produced already 900 buses in 2007, for SBA Transit Singapore... Produced for the Indian market will be the Scania Metrolink HD 45-seater. This is a 12-metre 4x2 model with 45 seats. The vehicle is 2.6 m wide, 3.7 m high and fitted with a 465-litre fuel tank... Second type is the Scania Metrolink HD 49-seater... Top model is the Scania Metrolink HD 53-seater, a 14.5-metre high-capacity 6x2 model featuring 53 semi-sleeper seats (or 57 without calf support). It has the Scania 13-litre 410 hp Euro 3 engine, Scania Opticruise 8-speed automated gearchanging. The third axle is hydraulically steered for easy manoeuvring. The vehicle is 2.6 m wide, 3.7 m high and fitted with a 465-litre fuel tank...Labels: busmakers news worldwide
TECHNO-BUSES * WORLDIWDE
* Connecticut - Rinspeed and Harman develop comprehensive mobilitiy concept
(Photo: The microMAX Harman Rinspeed 1)
Stamford,CT,USA -Busworld (Belgium) -23 Feb 2013: ... The ingenious commuter vehicle merges personal and public transportation in very clever fashion. In the Rinspeed “microMAX”, renowned manufacturer of top-class automotive multimedia and infotainment systems Harman for the first time introduces its vision of an “urbanSWARM” community concept based on the Harman Cloud platform... Potential riders only need to enter their destination; the “urbanSWARM” community uses Cloud technology and access to the collective information and experience of the entire swarm of vehicles to do the rest. Because the system has information about routes, destinations, traveling speeds and occupancy of all vehicles in the swarm, it calculates potential ride opportunities in real time and - if called for - even determines transfer options. This creates an extremely efficient, flexible and convenient transport system with maximum capacity – without wait times, without prior planning and without detours...
* UK - British coach operator Hodges fits solar panels
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Sandhurst, Berkshire,UK -Busworld (Belgium) -8 March 2013: -- British company Hodges Coaches of Sandhurst, Berkshire, has fitted solar panels to one of its Berkhof Axials. Owner Mark Hodges explained they were fitted to solve the perennial problem of flat batteries caused by drivers walking away from the coach and leaving the isolator switch on... He also claimed it offsets the general electricity drain from the numerous items that require a constant battery feed, such as tachographs, doors and stereos. He is about to fit his second to another Berkhof Axial. Supplied by Cleversolar, the panels have been used on motorhomes and trucks, but to both the supplier’s or Mark Hodges’s knowledge have never been fitted to a coach before... It took two days to get the panels fitted...Labels: techno buses
BUSES' SALES * WORLDWIDE
* UK - ADL has order for 125 “Arrive-and-Go” hybrids
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London,EN,UK -Busworld -22 Feb 2013: -- All of the buses – worth around £40m – are Enviro400 double decks. They will go into service in Manchester, Yorkshire and London, with operators such as Stagecoach, London United, London General and Metroline. A spokesman for Alexander Dennis Limited (ADL), explained that the latest generation hybrids come with “Arrive- and-Go” technology, capable of shutting the diesel engine down when vehicle speed drops below four mph - and re-starting it when it rises above seven mph.A series of test vehicles in operation have demonstrated a further six percent improvement on the 30% and 35% fuel and CO2 savings made with previous generation hybrids...
* Mexico - Fourteen more Volvo 7300 bi-articulated for Mexico City's BRT System
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Mexico,DF,MEX -Busworld -6 March 2013: -- Volvo Buses has delivered 14 new 7300 Volvo bi-articulated buses to the BRT system Metrobús in Mexico City... The increasing demand on line 1, which runs along one of the most important avenues in Mexico City, Insurgentes, is the main reason for the new units being integrated into the system. So far, occupancy has been recorded up to 95% in this line... The new fleet included, Line 1 will have in operation 27 Volvo 7300 bi-articulated of 25 meters long and capacity for 240 passengers in each vehicle...Labels: busmakers news worldwide
BUSES February REGISTRATION SLIDE * UK
* England - Bus And Coach market hits bump in the road as February registrations slide
London,EN,UK -Automotive World -6 Mar 2013: -- Bus and coach registrations fell 22% to 405 units in February with year-to-date registrations down 10%... Purpose-built bus and coach registrations declined 24.2% to 232 units for the month... Converted bus registrations also fell in February, 18.8% to 173 units... “The bus and coach market is showing a mixed picture in February. Following a positive start to the year, registrations dropped 22% in the month compared to 2012,” said Wendy Williamson, SMMT Bus and Coach Manager. “Last year, registrations were boosted by the London 2012 Games, so more modest growth is forecast for 2013. That said, government incentives, including the Green Bus Fund, will aid market demand, as will local authorities’ increasing focus on super efficient, low-carbon public transport” ... Labels: buses sales
PURCHASE of 10,000 BUSES * India
* India - Budget 2013: Hike in JNNURM allocation likely to boost bus sales
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(Photo: Mint - State transport undertakings bought 14,000 buses in 2009-2012 as part of the JNNURM programme)
Mumbai,India -The WSJ, LiveMiny, by Shally Seth Mohile -Feb 28 2013: -- Bus makers such as Tata Motors Ltd, Ashok Leyland Ltd and Volvo Buses India Pvt. Ltd may get a boost, thanks to an increase proposed in the allocation for the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM), money from which is used to expand and modernize public transport systems in the country’s towns and cities... Finance minister, P. Chidambaram, said in his budget speech on Thursday that the allocation would rise to Rs.14,873 crore in 2013-14 from Rs.7,383 crore in the current year... A significant portion of the fund will be used to support the purchase of up to 10,000 buses, specially by the hill states, he said. State transport undertakings bought 14,000 buses in 2009-2012 as part of the JNNURM programme...Labels: buses purchase prospects
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Washington,DC,USA -Land Line, by Greg Grisolano -14 March 2013: -- A Massachusetts bus company offering interstate shuttle services to Connecticut and New York City has been ordered to suspend service for failing to meet federal safety regulations... Santana Busline Inc., of Springfield, MA, was declared to be an imminent hazard to public safety by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration... Investigators found that Santana Busline “failed to ensure that its drivers comply with hours-of-service requirements, allowed unqualified drivers to operate its vehicles in an unsafe manner, failed to conduct periodic vehicle safety inspections, failed to properly maintain and repair vehicles as required by federal regulations, and knowingly dispatched vehicles with safety defects” according to the release... The company had been operating an unmarked 15-passenger van service between Springfield, Hartford, CT, and New York City...
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