Buses World News
In brief: Worldwide montly news & informations about Buses, Busmakers, Passengers' and the Transport Industry
BUSMAKERS NEWS * USA: IC Bus'
* Illinois - IC Bus first to offer new Eaton Transmission option
-- Trish Reed said IC Bus is excited to be the first brand in the school bus industry to offer its customers the option of the new Eaton's new dual-clutch, seven-speed Procision that was released last year... While the Procision is an option on the CE Series model starting later this year, the benefits of 8- to 10-percent improvement in fuel economy will result in "close parity" with the Allison 2000 Pupil Transportation Series. The data is based on Eaton testing... A feature called "Tap Down Shifting" provides drivers with more vehicle control at the brake pedal, and Procision is designed to offer drivers improved low-speed maneuverabilty in forward and reverse speeds... The transmission is designed to prevent rolling backward on 8-percent grades, based on grade and weight, and it allows for a controlled launch... The Procision will soon be offered as an option by other school bus manufacturers...
(Photo: An IC Bus CE Series powered by the new Eaton Procision transmission at the STN EXPO on July 28. The bus was on hand for trade-show attendee, ride-and-drive opportunities) -- Lisle, Ill, USA - School Transportation News, by Ryan Gray - July 31, 2015Labels: busmakers news USA
SCHOOL BUSES SEAT-BELT INTEGRITY * USA: NHTSA asked to study safety
* DC - School-bus seat under scrutinity
-- The School Bus Manufacturers Technical Council has petitioned the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration to determine if the structural integrity of the school bus seating and restraint system needs to be changed... The request came in response to a National Transportation Safety Board recommendation regarding three-point belts for school buses... The issue is at the center of an NTSB investigation into two fatal school bus crashes occurring about a month a part from each other in 2012 — the first on Feb. 16 of that year in Chesterfield, New Jersey, and the second on March 26 in Port St. Lucie, Florida. Both incidents involved a truck striking the school bus from the side, causing high lateral and rotational accelerations that contributed to the fatalities and injuries... In its final analysis of the New Jersey crash and an attached review of the Port St. Lucie crash that was finalized on July 23, 2013, NTSB recommended to SBMTC that it “develop a recommended practice for establishing and safeguarding the structural integrity of the entire school bus seating and restraint system, including the seat pan attachment to the seat frame, in severe crashes — in particular, those involving lateral impacts with vehicles of large mass.” ... In the Port St. Lucie crash, one seat pan with the self-latching mechanism became dislodged. All the seat pans in New Jersey collision held up. Both students killed in each crash were not wearing their lap belts, NTSB concluded...
(Photo from NTSB - Two fatal school bus crashes, one in New Jersey, left; and the other in Florida, right) -- Washington, DC, USA - The School Transportation News, by Ryan Gray - August 5, 2015Labels: safety school buses
ELECTRIC BUS FLEET * UK: 1st Large-scale one
* England - London to get its Electric Bus Fleet, thanks to BYD + Alexander Dennis Limited partnership
-- Go-Ahead London has contracted BYD Company + Alexander Dennis Limited to provide 51 emissions-free, all-electric buses as part of a £19 million deal between the groups, according to a recent press release... The 51-strong electric bus fleet will, once delivered, represent the largest such fleet in the whole of Europe, making the deal quite an important one for the region, for BYD, and for Alexander Dennis Limited, hopefully paving the way towards an electric future... The deal will see BYD provide the chassis and electric drivetrains, while Alexander Dennis Limited will body the buses — using the company’s market-leading Enviro200-like midi bus design as the template... Transport for London plans for all of the London’s single-deck buses to be completely emissions-free by 2020...Previous statements from the head of Barcelona’s transit agency to EV Obsession indicated that BYD’s electric buses were competitive with conventional diesel buses when comparing lifetime costs. If that’s the case, given the tremendous health, quality of life, and climate benefits of electric buses, it seems like a given that cities should switch to these...
London, EN, UK - EV Obsession/Clean Technica, by James Ayre - August 3rd, 2015Labels: electric buses makers, electric buses services
ORIGINAL SCHOOL BUS * Canada - Loaded with technology
* Ontario - Maker Bus visits festivals in Detroit and Toronto
-- London’s own book bus for the 21st century, is now delivering a message to techies from Toronto to Detroit... The Maker Bus, a kind of classroom on wheels that takes lessons on making things, quite literally, to schools, libraries and community groups, was on the road this holiday weekend to a Maker festival in Toronto and the weekend before, to Detroit... The converted, nine-metre long, 26-year-old school bus bristling with technology such as a 3D printer, laser cutter, soldering for circuit boards and as well as old fashioned hand tools and a sewing machine, is the labour of love for three London Makers, students and graduates of Western University who want to show people, especially youths, how to make stuff... The Maker movement, or culture, is growing with Maker groups found in most large cities, but few can boast a mobile version, such as London’s... It marries high-tech with traditional arts and crafts...
(Photo - The Maker Bus) -- London, ONT, CAN - The London Free Press, by Norman DeBono - August 5, 2015Labels: rare buses
PROPOSAL BUS SERVICE * India: To deploy 10,000 new DTC buses
* Delhi - Govt plans roadmap for better bus service
-- Days after the National Green Tribunal questioned its proposal to deploy 10,000 new DTC buses, Delhi Government has said that it is preparing a detailed roadmap to improve the public bus service... The plans include getting 500 acre of land from Delhi Development Authority (DDA) for parking buses, floating a fresh tender for procuring an initial lot of 1,380 semi-low-floor non-AC buses and 500 midi- buses, and redesigning 1,260 km of roads under Public Works Department... Earlier on July 20, the green tribunal had directed the Aam Aadmi Party government to come out with a proper study to support its plan of rolling out 10,000 Delhi Transport Corporation buses, twice what the AAP had promised in its poll manifesto...
(Image: Indian DTC's express buses) -- NEW DELHI, India - The Deccan Herald, by Pratik Kumar Aug 1, 2015Labels: public bus services
BUS MARKET * China: Research Report & Electric buses
* China - Bus market research report from 2015 to 2018 set to grow according to forecasts
-- In 2014, the new energy bus became a new sport light in bus market, with sales volume hitting 27,000 vehicles, up 160% from a year earlier. In terms of power type, the plug-in hybrid bus gained in popularity in the market with its lower prices and high cost performance... In 2014-2015, although macro-economy would have certain impact on bus market, city buses, new energy buses, and light-duty buses, which were driven by downstream market, presented a rise in demand, thus leading to growth of overall bus market in China. In 2014, the sales volume of buses (including bus chassis) in China came to 606,900 vehicles, up 8.37% from a year earlier... And therefore it accounted for the largest share in new energy bus market, at 47.5% in 2014. Spurred by technology maturity and polices, the battery electric bus developed rapidly, representing 47% in 2014, an increase of 31 percentage points from 2013... However, the ordinary hybrid bus, which was not brought into the national subsidy list, occupied an increasingly lower market share, to 5.5% in 2014. It is expected to gradually withdraw from the market in the future...
(Photo: 18-meter-long Electric Buses debut in Beijing. 2015 shows a brand-new electric bus, 18 meters in length, at the Fuchengmen Outer street bus terminal in Beijing, capital of China) -- Shanghai, SH, China - RnR Market Research/WhaTech Channel (Chicago, Illinois, USA) - 6 August 2015
* China - Electric Bus Market to grow at a CAGR of 33.6% to 2020
-- Sales volume of electric bus reached 27,000 vehicles throughout the year 2014, soaring by 160.3% from the previous year, and kept growing rapidly in the first half of 2015, approaching 20,000 vehicles. It is expected that China will sell 154,000 electric buses in 2020, with a CAGR of 33.6% during this period, said the "China Electric Bus Industry Report 2015-2020" ... The variety that is vigorously promoted is electric public bus which accounts for 85% of total sales volume of electric bus. City bus ownership in China now has exceeded 500,000 vehicles, carrying 60% of city passenger transportation in urban public transport system. As of 2014, electric public bus ownership nationwide topped 80,000 vehicles... It is expected that new electric public buses added in 2020 will make up 70% of new public buses added that year, and cumulative electric public bus ownership will exceed 300,000 vehicles by 2020... Besides public bus, light business-purpose bus and touring bus markets will be next market spotlights for electric bus. New energy commercial bus rating had been completed in the first quarter of 2015, and 3,000 vehicles are expected to be sold in 2015... Seen from battery, motor and electronic control industry chain, electric bus now adopts mainly LFP power battery and "LFP+ supercapacitor" dual-battery system. Based on the type of battery used by electric bus in the first half of 2015, configuration rate of LFP power battery including "LFP+ supercapacitor" dual-battery system was up to 82%. Rated power of drive motor for electric bus mostly falls into the range of 80 kW to 120kW. Asynchronous motor still holds a dominant position, as it can provide high-power traction; permanent-magnet synchronous motor starts to be massively used in medium-sized and small buses... In point of competitive landscape among companies, top5 electric bus manufacturers in 2014 were Yutong Bus, Xiamen King Long Motor Group (including three wholly-owned subsidiaries: Higer Bus, Xiamen King Long United Automotive Industry, Xiamen Golden Dragon Bus), BYD, Nanjing Golden Dragon Bus and Zhongtong Bus, together producing 17,011 vehicles, 62.5% of the country's total... As electric bus enjoys enormous space for future development and can greatly drive the development of relevant industrial chains, China has ushered in an electric bus investment boom since 2014, with planned investment in electric bus announced by key bus makers nationwide exceeding RMB21 billion according to preliminary statistics and a lot of capacity putting into production in 2016 and 2017...
(Photo: Depot buses, settled in for the night) -- Shanghai, China - PRNewswire-iReach (Chicago,ILL,USA) - Aug. 3, 2015Labels: bus markets, market prognosis
