European Bus System of the Future

I was very surprised to find out that few of the British Bus Manufacturers even knew about this major European Government initiative, let alone were actually taking part, have you heard of it before now? My first encounter was in 2009 when MAN asked my then employer to come up with an impressive ceiling system with colour changing LED lighting. When I investigated further, I found that Evobus/Mercedes Iveco Irisbus MAN  Scania Volvo were the main vehicle manufacturers, and suppliers such as Hübner Init - Innovation in Traffic Systems FZE Digigroup - Digigroup SRL Ineo - Ineo Systrans and Invertec to name but a few, were actively participating in building prototype vehicles as part of the project.

The idea is simple; targets were set by the EU commission and a working group International Association of Public Transport (UITP) was set up. The targets were all about improving bus design, in such a way that it became more attractive to people to use Buses as a public transport system, instead of driving their cars. It was all about improving the travelling experience. I bought a book published by the commission from their web site to discover the quite enormous scope of the task, some of the planned outcomes were,

• Maximize the number of passengers in the vehicle
• Specify the bus to handle large amounts of passengers and increase the commercial speed of the bus system; special focus will be given to passengers with reduced mobility (disabled, elderly, pregnant women…), pushchairs and persons with sensory impairment
• Optimize the driver ergonomics and develop a new driver work space
• Standardize the Controlled Location and Information System to reduce costs
• Create a new system assisting the driver in better handling the vehicle within the city

Some of the simple realisations of the goals were as simple as locking fold down chairs, which can be locked in the up position by the driver when the bus is full, creating more standing space, with a coloured indicator light showing green when it was unlocked for use and red when it was locked, larger and more passenger doors with an outward swing to allow for better boarding and egress. Others included full colour TV style monitors for passenger information, passenger counters so that the driver knew how many passengers were aboard, Coloured lighting to warn of the doors closing or opening, low energy lighting with higher light levels in passenger entry and exit areas, and the development of Driver workplaces.

The improvement of the ergonomics and the Driver Work place is where Pailton can really make a difference, as it is here that our development team can work together with the bus manufacturers to provide the optimum driver comfort in the steering ergonomics. Volvo have built a very special prototype running in Göteborg with a central drivers position, which if approved to Whole Vehicle Type Approval will open up the RHD market and reduce the cost of their offerings to it by combining the RHD and LHD into one vehicle. The MAN bus is running in Budapest with the special ceiling that I helped design.

I wonder just how much of the EBSF project objectives and targets have been catered for on the new Borismaster or New Bus for London? I wonder if all this activity will actually work, and encourage more of us to take the bus instead of our cars.