Hybrid buses will hit the road next month, Transportation News and Better Stories



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The first 10 diesel-electric hybrid buses of a fleet of 50 vehicles will be introduced on Singapore's roads next month, as part of the national effort to make the public bus fleet more environmentally friendly. # 39; environment.

They will be managed by SBS Transit and SMRT operators, announced the Land Transport Authority (LTA) at the announcement of the move yesterday.

The new buses will be deployed on feeder services and intercity routes. Service 272 – a food service operated by SBS Transit in the Bukit Merah region – is one of the first bus routes.

In hybrid vehicles, when the brakes are applied, the electric motor acts as a generator to recover the kinetic energy that is stored in the batteries in the form of electricity.

The buses will run on electricity at a maximum speed of 17 km / h and will only switch to the diesel engine at higher speeds.

The vehicles come from Volvo East Asia, which won a $ 30 million supply contract last October.

Two tests of a Volvo hybrid bus, conducted in Singapore in 2015 and 2016, revealed fuel savings of up to 40%, as well as "significant reductions" in emissions of carbon dioxide and other pollutants .

In addition to these hybrid vehicles, Singapore will begin to introduce a fleet of 60 electric buses on the roads starting next year.

Hybrid buses have a number of features that will benefit commuters and drivers.

These include advanced driver assistance systems to warn drivers of obstacles, while a well-trained camera will monitor the driver's eyes to determine whether he is drowsing and triggering a device to shake the seat.

For commuters, an improved information display system will include two LCD screens that will give more information about their routes.

An LCD screen facing the outside of the bus will indicate the three upcoming MRT stations on the route, as well as the lines on which the stations are activated. The other bus screen displays the following four stops, in addition to nearby MRT stations and their lines.

The enhanced information display system will also make audio announcements at the next bus stop.

All new buses will be equipped with this enhanced display system to help commuters plan their journey, LTA said.

"All of these elements will help make the suburban experience more enjoyable and encourage more people to use public transit," said Transportation Senior Parliamentary Secretary Baey Yam Keng, who was onboard the airport. One of the new hybrid buses yesterday.

The buses will be progressively deployed on different services, details to be announced later, announced the LTA.

"This gradual deployment will help us better understand the operational challenges associated with the wider deployment of such buses in our tropical climate and traffic conditions," he added.

In addition, this will give bus technicians and engineers more time to understand the challenges of maintaining such buses, the LTA said.

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