Buses World News
In brief: Worldwide montly news & informations about Buses, Busmakers, Passengers' and the Transport Industry
HYDROGEN FUELED BUSES * Ireland
* Dublin - How a British bus operator leads the way down the hydrogen highway
... Hydrogen is still discussed in the future tense. It’s often referred to as the most realistic long-term replacement for fossil fuels, because tailpipe emissions are nothing but water and you fuel and run the vehicle in the same fashion as a petrol or diesel vehicle. However, there are still some challenges that will need to be overcome – the cost of the infrastructure, price and availability of vehicles and where and how you refuel... The city of Aberdeen has proved hydrogen a viable prospect for buses, though. It launched the H2 hydrogen bus project in March 2015, comprising 10 vehicles – the largest hydrogen bus fleet in Europe... The introduction of hydrogen buses necessitated additional training for the drivers, but despite having to get their heads around the new technology, they’re still fans... The transition has been easier for passengers. Travellers enjoy the refinement of hydrogen buses...
(Photo: A hydrogen filling station in Kittybrewster, just north of the city centre of Aberdeen)
... Buses aren’t the only hydrogen powered vehicles in the city, as the council is currently trialling a pair of Hyundai iX35 fuel cell cars, supplied by the CoWheels car club. The vehicles will soon be available for public hire and another two will be added to the fleet and made available for businesses to lease before the end of 2017...
Dublin, Ireland - Transport Parts, by Padraic Deane - March 29, 2017Labels: hydrogen fueled buses, passengers transport industry Europe
HYDROGEN POWERED BUSES * USA
* Hawaii - Hydrogen-powered buses coming to Big Island
(Photo: Hawaiian park to introduce two hybrid buses using both hybrid battery and hydrogen fuel)
Kailua-Kona North,Hawai,USA -West Hawaii Today, by TOM CALLIS -June 24, 2014: -- Hawaii Island could be less than a year away from having some of the first hydrogen-powered buses in the state on its roadways... As part of a pilot project spearheaded by the Hawaii Natural Energy Institute, three shuttle buses will be converted to hydrogen power... At 10 cents a kilowatt hour, the cost of using hydrogen could be equivalent to $6 dollars a gallon for gasoline. The electric engines the hydrogen powers are more efficient, which essentially cuts that cost in half, to roughly $3 a gallon for comparison purposes... Another benefit is the absence of pollutants... The buses can drive for up to 150 miles on a “full charge of hydrogen,” Stan Osserman, HCATT director, he said the Big Island’s abundance of renewable resources makes it a promising place for using hydrogen-powered vehicles, which is why the buses are being located here...Labels: green buses, hydrogen fueled buses
HYDROGEN FUELED * UK - Three hydrogen buses for London
London,EN,USA -The Hydrogen Journal -Nov 9, 2010: -- Transport for London has secured Euro 5.67m funding from the European Union' "Cleaner Hydrogen in Cities" project, which it will use to buy three hybrid fuel cell buses... The buses will run on the RV1 route along the river Thames in central London... There are already plans to install 5 fuel cell buses on the RV1 route later in 2010. The additional 3 buses will be added at the end of 2011, which means that the entire route will be serviced by hydrogen fuel cell buses... The demonstration project will be extended from 3 years to 4 years... The fuel cells will be provided by Ballard and the hydrogen will be supplied by Air Products... EU investment in hydrogen technology is also going to Oslo, Milan, Bolzano (Italy), and Aargau / St. Gallen (Switzerland)... The buses will be refuelled and maintained at Lea Interchange bus garage, Leyton... (Photo from tfl.gov.uk: Fuel-cell bus)
Labels: hydrogen fueled buses
Hydrogen-Fueled Buses * UK - London’s new green buses to be shipped thousands of miles for engine installation
London,UK -Coach Broker, by Louise Williams -March 26, 2010: -- Transport For London have come under fire this week after it was revealed that the much celebrated hydrogen-powered buses will be shipped three-quarters of the way around the world to have their engines fitted... The environmentally friendly fleet of London buses, which are part of a £15 million scheme, are being made in Northern Ireland. However they will then be shipped to California where they will have their specialist engines installed... The 5 buses will be ready to join London’s bus network by November this year after their trip back from the U. States... TFL have defended their decision to ship the hydrogen-powered buses saying that in the long term they will reduce their carbon footprint considerably. They say it is necessary to transport the new buses so far as they are high tech vehicles and only a handful of places in the world have the expertise to work on these buses.. (Photo: London's new hydrogen-powered buses to come into service in November)Labels: hydrogen fueled buses
HYDROGEN BUSES NEWS * WORLDWIDE
* UK - HB for London, next summer
Truro,Cornwall,UK -Gas World, by Hill -5 Nov 2009: -- Five hydrogen fuel cell buses are to be brought to England’s capital and are expected to be in operation from next summer... The Olympic Delivery Authority has granted planning permission for a hydrogen refuelling facility to be built in East London... A fleet of five buses will be operated by the First Group, which has been granted the planning permission for the facility to be located at its bus garage on Temple Mills Lane, Leyton... The five hydrogen hybrid fuel cell buses are due to join Transport for London's (TfL) bus fleet next year, operating on route RV1, which runs between Covent Garden and Tower Gateway... * Canada - Hydrogen Buses Arriving for 2010 Vancouver Winter OlympicsVancouver,BC,CAN -Eco Friendly -Nov 6, 2009: -- B.C. Transit has announced that the first of 20 hydrogen fuel cell buses will arrive in about a week and a half, on November 17 in Whistler, British Columbia, Canada. The first bus will arrive next Monday and will be in service for passengers the following week... Whistler, BC is one of the end points in the British Columbia Hydrogen Highway system. When complete, visitors will be able to travel from Whistler to Squamish to Surrey to Vancouver to Richmond and then to Victoria and back. The 2010 Winter Olympics will take place in Vancouver, BC... The other 19 hydrogen fuel cell buses will arrive in Whistler before the end of December where they will undergo commissioning and servicing. So far, tests of the fuel cell buses have proven that they can be in service for 22 hours straight and hold up under temperatures of -20C, which may come into play when the 2010 Winter Olympics start in February 2010...
* UK - Buses converted to fuel cells
Sunderland, UK -The Engineer Online -6 November 2009: -- Sunderland University has joined forces with Shanghai’s Shen Li High Technology and local experts ComeSys Europe and AVID vehicles to create ECO2Trans, a project to convert two buses to a fuel-cell, battery and capacitor combination... One North East has sponsored the £314,000 project to convert the two Gulliver U500EUK buses using expertise from companies in China, Germany and the UK... The aim of ECO2Trans, said Kok, is to educate people about the possibilities of hydrogen as a fuel, by demonstrating the efficiency of fuel cells. Sunderland University is also looking to develop the next generation of engineers and technicians to work on low-carbon transport platforms... (Photo from bioage.typepad: Sunderland’s Dirk Kok, Mark Armstrong, Maggie Ren and Adrian Morris with one of the buses)Labels: hydrogen fueled buses
HYDROGEN BUSES * Brazil - Launches First Fuel Cell Bus in Latin America
Sao Paulo,Brazil -VOA News (UK) -6 September 2009: -- If you travel by bus in Sao Paulo, Brazil these days your vehicle may be powered by hydrogen fuel cells. The city's urban transportation system recently launched the first of up to five hydrogen buses. The hydrogen reacts with oxygen to produce electricity and water... The bus uses a hybrid system that combines the hydrogen fuel cells with high power batteries. It can be driven three hundred kilometers on the hydrogen cell and an additional fifty kilometers on its batteries... The bus carries passengers in communities around Sao Paulo... The United Nations Development Program, the World Bank and other private, public and international groups supported the project... (Photo: New "clean" bus is expected to reduce pollution in heavily populated Sao Paulo)Labels: hydrogen fueled buses
* Brazil, and * Czech Republic - Rolling Out Hydrogen Buses
USA -Hydrogen Cars & Vehicles -1 July 2009:
Sao Paulo,Brazil: Up to 5 hydrogen fuel cell hybrid buses will be purchased, tested and refueled at a central location. The buses also use regenerative braking to help recharge the battery system... Sao Paulo has the world’s largest bus fleet with 50,000 units manufactured each year and 90-percent of the pollution in that city is due to cars, buses and other engine-powered vehicles. So, the introduction of zero emission vehicles such as hydrogen buses makes sense on the air quality issue alone...
Praga,Czech Republic: Hydrogen fuel cell hybrid buses are also being introduced. The testing of this type of vehicle (pictured) is being called the TriHyBus project. The bus uses a 48 kw Proton fuel cell along with a bank of ultracapacitors... Regenerative braking is also being used to recharge the ultracapacitors and the Linde Group will be building the hydrogen refueling station in the town of Neratovice and delivering the compressed hydrogen gas from off site...Labels: hydrogen fueled buses
Hydrogen-fueled Buses * USA - Ford tests shuttles at Metro Airport
Metrocars will run 2 buses between terminals five days a week in six-month test
Romulus,MICH,USA -The Detroit News, by Tanveer Ali -April 25, 2009: -- Two new buses that run on hydrogen have begun traveling between terminals at Detroit Metro Airport, with hopes that the use of such technology could expand to make the airport more environmentally friendly... The Wayne County Airport Authority began operating the Ford E-450 buses March 29 as part of a study looking at the viability of clean-fuel transportation... The shuttles run five days a week, along with the airport's other buses, taking people for free between the McNamara and North Terminals... (Photo by Velvet S. McNeil / The Detroit News - The two hydrogen-fueled shuttle buses hold a smaller capacity in order to make room for six tanks that feed into a retooled engine)Labels: hydrogen fueled buses
HYDROGREN FUELED * Germany - To receive fuel cell-powered city buses
North Rhine,Westphaliam,Germany -Clean Tech -February 13, 2009: -- Arnhem, Netherlands-based Nedstack is to deliver two fuell cell-based city buses to North Rhine Westphalia by 2010... Germany's Minister of Economic Affairs plans to sign a contract on February 17 for the delivery of two buses to the city of Cologne, according to Nedstack, a Netherlands-based fuel cell developer... Nedstack manufactures proton exchange membrane (PEM)-based hydrogen fuel cells that combine hydrogen and oxygen in an electrochemical reaction to produce electricity... Buses are a better platform for fuel cells, the company said, because they can store enough compressed hydrogen within their extra space for a typical city route, and can better accommodate the reformer which extracts hydrogen from other stored fuel like methanol or natural gas... (Image from Nedstack - Buses: A fuel cell powered bus offers more passenger comfort and lower operational costs than its conventional counterpart powered by diesel or natural gas. And above all, a fuel cell bus is whisper silent and completely emission free!)Labels: hydrogen fueled buses
Hydrogen Cell-powered * USA - UAB to study hydrogen cell-powered buses on Birmingham streets
Birmingham,AL,USA -The Birmingham News, by GINNY MacDONALD -October 27, 2008: -- A hydrogen cell-powered transit bus will hit the streets in Birmingham in the next year, carrying MAX passengers as part of a study of the environmentally friendly and fuel-efficient vehicle... A UAB School of Engineering team will work with four other teams, including one from Auburn University, to design, manufacture, demonstrate and evaluate the 30-foot prototype bus on a variety of routes. Researchers say they want to determine whether hydrogen cell-powered buses can operate as part of Birmingham's transit fleet... Labels: hydrogen fueled buses
ALTERNATIVE FUELS * UK - Order of Complete Storage Systems for Hydrogen buses Bound for London, England
Calgary,Alberta,CAN -CNW -April 9, 2008: -- Dynetek Industries Ltd., a leader in developing, producing and marketing lightweight compressed gas storage cylinders, announced today it has received an order to deliver 10 hydrogen storage systems to ISE Corporation for the Hydrogen powered buses bound for London, England... These buses are part of the Mayor of London's plan to have up to 70 hydrogen vehicles in operation in London by 2010, as set out in the London Hydrogen Partnership's Transport Action Plan...
Labels: hydrogen fueled buses
Hydrogen Engines * USA - Florida airport tests buses
Orlando,FL,USA -CNN, by Marsha Walton -March 19, 2008: -- Some Florida amusement park visitors may enjoy space-themed roller-coasters, but the first vehicle they board at Orlando International Airport may be the most futuristic ride of their vacation... The airport is testing four Ford shuttle vans equipped with internal combustion engines modified to run on hydrogen instead of gasoline... (Four hydrogen shuttle buses are part of the fleet at the Orlando International Airport)Labels: hydrogen fueled buses
Hydrogen Fuel * UK - Air Products secures bus fleet deal
London,UK -Transport Briefing -17 March 2008: -- Transport for London has signed a £3.4m contract with Air Products to supply hydrogen fuel for the capital's planned fleet of hydrogen buses and to build and maintain the necessary hydrogen refuelling infrastructure... The contract covers the cost of installing, operating and maintaining the infrastructure necessary to power ten hydrogen buses, ordered by Transport for London in November last year, and due to enter service by 2010... Air Products will also supply the hydrogen fuel, but the cost of the fuel will be determined by market rates when the buses enter into service. The volume of hydrogen required to operate the buses in service has also yet to be confirmed... Labels: hydrogen fueled buses
Zero-emissions Bus * USA - Runs super clean, but super pricey
Green, yes. But a new report from the VTA says the $18 million state-mandated pilot project costs too much green - and raises troubling questions about whether the program should continue
San Jose,CA,USA -The SanJose Mercury News, by Gary Richards -25 Feb 2008: -- ... The most glaring figure: Zero-emission buses - or ZEBs - cost $51.66 to fuel, maintain and operate per mile compared to just $1.61 for a 40-foot conventional diesel coach. They break down much more frequently, and replacement parts are next to impossible to order, according to the report... The VTA experiment could be a blow to hydrogen fuel technology, once heralded as the future of green mass transit options. At the least, the report raises significant questions about whether the state should ease off the accelerator rather than pushing Bay Area transit agencies to expand the hydrogen project... (Photo by Gary Reyes / Mercury News - Steve Maloon, Transit Mechanic, fills up a VTA bus with hydrogen at the fueling station at the Cerone Operating Division facility in San Jose today. VTA's Zero Emission Bus program (ZEB) has not been as successful as originally planned after three years of operation. The hydrogen fuel cell powered buses are expensive to buy and maintain. As a result, they cost more to keep on the road than the normal diesel buses used by the VTA) Labels: hydrogen fueled buses
Hydrogen-fueled Buses * USA - SeaWorld to debut shuttle buses
Orlando,FL,USA - The Orlando Business Journal -February 19, 2008: -- SeaWorld plans to unveil two new, hydrogen-fueled shuttle buses as part of its newest conservation program... The shuttle buses are part of a pilot program involving the Florida Department of Environmental Protection, Ford Motor Co., Chevron Technology Ventures and Progress Energy. During the program, data will be collected from the SeaWorld vehicles to evaluate efficiency and best applications for hydrogen-fueled vehicles... Labels: hydrogen fueled buses
AFTER OIL * Czech Republic - Project looks to drop carbon emissions with hydrogen-powered buses
Prague,Czech Republic -The Prague Post, by Michael Heitmann -February 13, 2008: -- Two Temelín-size nuclear reactors — that’s what would be needed to power all the road transportation in the Czech Republic, according to the Nuclear Research Institute in Řež, near Prague... The institute is the country’s leading proponent of using hydrogen to fuel the cars of the next generation. Nuclear energy remains the most promising means of generating hydrogen, according to Luděk Janík, a scientist at the institute... It would take a daring government to approve such an expansion, Janík said. In the meantime, the institute is leading a consortium of companies determined to prove the viability of hydrogen as a fuel by putting the first hydrogen-powered bus on Czech roads... (Photo, by Photo illustration by PHILIP JONES and VLADIMIR WE : Hydrogen-powered buses could begin services in the town of Neratovice as early as next year)Labels: hydrogen fueled buses
HYDROGEN FC BUSES * USA - CALSTART partners with FTA for
Houston,TX,USA -Energy Current -30 Jan /2008: -- CALSTART, a transportation technology company, has secured five contracts with the Federal Transit Administration (FTA) to develop hydrogen fuel cell buses. The US$24 million project, US$12 million of which is funded by the FTA, involves multiple fuel cell makers, three transit districts, and three bus manufacturers... The five projects include one "next generation" hydrogen fuel cell bus, a hybrid bus that combines hydrogen power with a traditional engine, an analysis of weaknesses in hybrid buses, and the development of a power converter which can streamline energy flow from multiple sources...Labels: hydrogen fueled buses
GREEN NEWS * Denmark - Hydrogen-powered bus proposals
Green public transit is getting a lift from proposals to power buses with non-polluting hydrogen
Copenhagen,Sealand,Denmark -Jyllands-Posten newspaper/The Copenhagen Post -14 January 2008: -- Delegates to the 2009 UN Climate Conference in Copenhagen might well find themselves being transported in green buses. Green as in hydrogen-powered... Parties from both sides of the aisle have made proposals that would pave the way for the introduction of public transit that uses hydrogen as a pollution-free source of power in the country's major cities, reports... A number of European cities have carried out their own trial runs with hydrogen-powered busses, proving the technology works... The group suggests that funding for the project be split between the national government and private investors...Labels: hydrogen fueled buses
Fuel Cell Hybrid * Germany - Hydrogenics Receives US$1.7 Million Order for Fuel MidiBuses
Buses to be deployed for shuttle service at EXPOAGUA Zaragoza 2008Germany -CNN Money -November 27, 2007: -- Hydrogenics Corporation , a leading designer and manufacturer of hydrogen and fuel cell systems, announced today that it has received a US $1.7M order for the delivery of three Fuel Cell Hybrid MidiBuses to the upcoming 2008 International Exposition, EXPOAGUA Zaragoza 2008 to be held next summer in the City of Zaragoza, Spain... Hydrogenics' Germany-based team will integrate a standard HyPM fuel cell power module as part of a hybrid power system into a Tecnobus Gulliver all-electric Midibus power-train. This order for three Midibuses, achieved through a public tender, follows the success of delivering three earlier Midibuses on the same OEM platform to Dusseldorf and Rome... (Image from http://www.hydrogenics.com/power/products.asp)Labels: hydrogen fueled buses
HYDROGEN BUSES * China - Fuel-cell buses to serve on routes to World Expo. venues
Shanghai,China -Xinhua/chinaview.cn -Nov. 16, 2007: -- A hydrogen refueling station for hybrid cell vehicles has been built in Anting area of Shanghai, ready to provide clean energy during the 2010 World Expo to be held in the city... A fleet of hybrid, clean energy fuel-cell buses can be expected to be operating by 2009 in Shanghai, said the fuel cell bus commercialization organizers... The bus station is capable of refueling three fuel buses or 20 fuel cell cars at a time...Labels: hydrogen fueled buses
