Page 26 - Demo

international
bus news from around the world
Buses will have a running time website similar to trains in England.
Self-drive buses on show in China.
CANADA
ALL-ELECTRIC FROM 2025
e Toronto Transit Commission (TTC) has approved an ambitious target of acquiring only zero-emission buses by 2025 and it expects to have an all emission-free eet by the end of 2040.
A June 2018 TTC report said that adopting technology too fast can result in decades of poor system reliability, low passenger and operator satisfaction, and a higher cost for maintaining and operating the vehicles. However, the report also noted that since
the TTC also operates the largest bus eet
in Canada and the third-largest in North America, it has a role to play in advancing technologies that promise to signi cantly improve safety, the environment and vehicle reliability, lower life-cycle costs, and focus on passenger service.
CHINA
BLOCKBUSTER DEAL
U.S. technology rm Seven Stars Cloud Group (SSC) has entered a deal with China’s largest electric bus operator to provide nance services using blockchain technology. SSC said its partnership with the National Transportation Capacity Co Ltd (NTCC) would run for three years and was worth $24 billion.
China plans to replace all traditional buses with electric vehicles as soon as 2021.
SSC will speci cally provide “ xed income lease nancing-based products” through
its regulated network, which will in turn provide NTCC with regulatory-compliant blockchain nance products.
e value of the entire electric vehicle replacement project totals a giant 1 trillion yuan (NZ$222 billion).
INTERNATIONAL
ELECTRIC DOMINATION
A new report from Bloomberg New Energy Finance (BNEF) predicts electric-drive buses will make up 84 per cent of all new (bus)vehicle sales by 2030. e report says electric buses are likely to have lower cost of ownership than their fossil fuel-powered counterparts within the next year or so. e advance of e-buses will be even more rapid than for electric cars, according to BNEF’s analysis. It shows electric buses
in almost all charging con gurations
having a lower total cost of ownership than conventional municipal buses by 2019. ere are already over 300,000 e-buses on the road in China and electric models are on track to dominate the global market by the late 2020s.
UNITED KINGDOM
LATE BUS DISCLOSURE
Under Government plans announced last month bus companies will be forced to declare how late they are in real time to appease passengers. Buses Minister Nusrat Ghani said the move was designed to get more people using public transport.
A website is to be set up similar to the National Rail Enquiries site, which lets passengers see details of live train times and routes across all timetables.
KILOMETRE REDUCTION
A leaked document from Transport for London (TfL) has revealed that many buses in central London are running nearly empty, some less than 70 per cent full at peak times – and bus use is falling. TfL is planning to cut the kilometres buses run in central London by nine per cent and remove excess capacity with possible increase to outer London. More detail is due in September and all of the changes will be subject to public consultation.
JAPAN
SELF-DRIVE DUE NEXT YEAR
Tech company Baidu’s self-driving 14
seater buses will be introduced in Japan by early 2019, and even sooner in a number
of Chinese cities. Baidu, China’s answer
to Google, is working with Chinese bus- maker King Long to build the buses, called Apolong. It has already made 100 of the buses, which have no driver’s seat or steering wheel.
SWEDEN
ELECTRIC LEADER
Gothenburg is taking a lead in the transition to electrically-propelled urban bus tra c
in Sweden. An order for 30 all-electric Volvo buses is the biggest order so far for all-electric buses in Sweden. It is also Volvo Buses’ biggest order to date. Volvo Buses has also secured an order of 23 all-electric buses from public transport company Arriva in the Netherlands. e buses will operate in the city of Leiden in the province of South Holland.
SOUTH AFRICA
UPHILL FOR ELECTRICS
South Africa’s rst electric buses are literally facing an uphill battle in Cape Town, a er
it emerged that they are unsuited for the city’s mountainous terrain. Capetown has ordered BYD buses that have a capacity to achieve 60km/h on a four per cent gradient, but one hilly area has a gradient of 6.5 per cent, which may be out of its range. Tests were under way to increase the power to drive motors. e city is also investigating allegations that Mayor Patricia de Lille and senior city o cials set up meetings with BYD before the company clinched the deal. Cape Town will not take delivery until the investigation of the tender is completed.
26 CIRCULAR SEPTEMBER 2018
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