Survey participants revealed a large number of service attributes that affect user perceptions of different transit modes. These findings show that people do perceive alternative rapid transit modes differently, and appear to be independent of any particular mode or technology. Photo courtesy of LA METRO Transit Authority.

Without a doubt, image is important to Bus Rapid Transit (BRT). Sleek looking vehicles, rail-like stations, advanced technologies and a strong brand identity are just a few of the features that help communicate the message: This is not just a regular bus service. With BRT specifically designed to emulate the high quality service of rail-based transit, there is still much the industry must know about its capability to replicate the premium image of rail and how and why it attracts ridership.

NBRTI recently completed a study to examine the tangible and intangible factors that influence public perceptions of different transit modes.

Tangible service attributes – like travel cost, travel time, and service frequency – are concrete and pretty straightforward to measure, while intangible attributes, such as comfort, ride quality, and safety, are a bit fuzzier. They’re based more on opinion and, as such, are more difficult to measure and quantify.

We designed the NBRTI study around two market research exercises; first a series of focus groups followed by an attitudinal survey. We fielded the research in Los Angeles, CA due to the city’s range of different rapid transit modes, including BRT-Lite (Metro Rapid), Full-Service BRT (Orange Line), light rail (Gold Line, Blue Line) and heavy rail (Red Line).

Focus Groups
The focus groups revealed a large number of service attributes that affect user perceptions of different transit modes. Survey participants rated each transit mode from “very poor” to “very good,” both overall and according to the 14 core service attributes. We used the overall rating for each transit mode as a proxy for ridership attraction. These findings show that people do perceive alternative rapid transit modes differently. Furthermore, differences in perception appear to be independent of any particular mode or technology.

The survey data revealed significant differences in the overall ratings of the different modes, which we grouped accordingly into four statistically distinct tiers. Overall, ratings generally followed the relative level of investment required to provide each service.

To dig a little deeper we examined the actual level of investment of each mode, defined as capital cost per mile in 2005 dollars. The figure below compares each mode in terms of overall rating and actual level of investment, and also shows the four tiers.

This analysis showed a large disparity in investment level. Yet, aside from the two obvious extremes of the local bus and the Red Line, the ratings achieved by the remaining transit services didn’t simply follow respective levels of investment. For Tiers 2 and 3, both the Metro Rapid “BRT-Lite” and Orange Line “Full-Service” BRT outperform their investment costs, achieving a slightly higher rating than their more expensive light rail counterparts. Overall, these findings show that, in the perception of the public, BRT (even in its lower-investment forms) can compete with rail-based transit in return for lower capital cost investments.

We then took a look at the influence of the different tangible and intangible attributes on the overall ratings of each mode. It appears that modal perceptions are determined by a combination of tangible and intangible attributes, with reliability being the most important tangible factor and safety the most important intangible factor. Interestingly, ratings for the local bus were found to be more heavily influenced by the tangible attributes of travel time, service span and service frequency, while the rail modes were more heavily influenced by the intangibles of safety and comfort. Focus group transcripts suggest that urban context influences the attractiveness of a transit service by directly impacting perceptions of intangible service attributes such as safety. That urban context may in fact have a larger impact on overall perceptions than whether a service is rail- or bus-based.

Overall, findings show that Full-Service BRT can replicate both the functionality standards and image qualities normally associated with rail, and that even a lower-investment BRT-Lite service performs remarkably well in terms of overall rating achieved per investment dollar. Visit www.nbrti.org for the full report.

Jennifer Flynn serves as a Senior Research Associate for the National Bus Rapid Transit Institute, Center for Urban Transportation Research of the University of South Florida, Tampa, FL.

By David Hubbard

Destination Shuttle Services (DSS), Los Angeles, CA, serves 13 hotels within 1.5 miles of LAX and operates 34 shuttle buses equipped with advanced GPS and Omnivex software.

The proposal Destination Shuttle Services (DSS), Los Angeles, CA, first presented in 2000 was strong enough to convince 13 competing hotels within a 1-1/2-mile radius of Los Angeles International Airport to buy into its idea for a singular consolidated and fully integrated shuttle bus service.

Five percent of all passengers traveling by air utilize hotel shuttle services for convenient transport to and from the serving airports. Based on the economic report prepared for 2008 by the Air Transport Association, 769.2 million travelers flew nationwide, meaning that more than 38,460,000 people used hotel shuttle bus service. LAX represents only 6.8 percent of the total number of people who rely on this service.

Conservative calculations based on the figures above indicate throughout the country more than 12,450,000 shuttle bus trips operate the old fashion way, initiated independently from each hotel with separate fleets. DSS suggests this number could be cut in half through creative management and programs like the one it has designed for the Los Angeles International Airport.

Purporting to be the first private green transit system in Los Angeles, DSS says its mission extends beyond basic transportation to encompass environment stewardship and greater community support.

Launched in 2000 after successfully creating and delivering the transportation plan for the 2000 Democratic National Convention in Los Angeles, DSS is the brainchild of Events and Transportation Associates, which formed in 1991 to serve highly secured and visible events. Its client list also includes the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta, GA.

The communication system mounted in plain view on each vehicle provides passengers with location specific and dynamic information for onboard bus passengers arriving or departing.

The company formed DSS in response to a call from the City of Los Angeles for a trip reduction solution to and from LAX that would reduce congestion and emissions. This initial phase consolidated airport shuttle services for nine hotel properties and slashed more than 146,000 vehicle trips in the first year. DSS says service has since grown to 13 properties with 34 buses operating at a higher volume with greater efficiently than the prior combined 65 vehicles of various models and fuel types that each hotel operated independently from one another.

DSS took three specific steps early on that can significantly reduce emissions levels. It changed fuel systems, upgraded and updated the equipment and created a much more efficient business model. It also converted all the vehicles in the fleet from gasoline and diesel engines to a mix of CNG and propane powered buses.

These upgrades took the average bus model year of 1999 to 2007. Today the DSS reports its fleet transporting 2.2 million passengers yearly while trimming one million total miles of vehicle traffic in and around LAX. DSS says this move cut the number of bus trips by approximately 195,000, used 227,500 less gallons of fuel, and eliminated over four million pounds of CO2 emissions per year.

Technology improves service
LCD screens mounted inside the shuttles provide passengers with location specific and dynamic information for onboard bus passengers arriving or departing. GPS displays on public information kiosks at bus stops and load zones give the location of the bus in real time, and feature transit-style vehicle signage and audio announcement systems. The DDS software manages every vehicle each minute of every day.

In addition, kiosks placed in the lobbies of each of the partner hotels provide guests with information, including the arrival of the next shuttle along with the status of their flight — all made available through the use of Omnivex digital signage software and Microsoft Windows 7 location-based services.

The system essentially makes the shuttle service an extension of the hospitality experience guests expect from their hotel. Through the sale of advertising space within the digital content on the screens, Destination Shuttle Services says it has realized a new revenue stream and a tremendous return on investment.

Passengers better understood
DSS developed its proprietary trip reduction model to determine the highs and lows of passenger transportation needs throughout the day. The software alerts dispatch when to send more or less buses, which streamlines costs and reduces road congestion and emissions.

“Once we know the number of travelers at a hotel, and how many people we will move in a day, we can arrange for the best size bus and the ideal number of runs,” says Chief Executive Officer Jack E. Lott. “The goal is always to minimize the number of trips. We are utilizing our equipment more efficiently throughout the entire week.”

The technology enables DSS to track guest and passenger trends by the hour, day, week, month and year for each hotel, as well as determine specific demographics. For example, one hotel may cater predominately to international guests; another attracts regional business travelers; while another may serve only the family and leisure market.

The communication system mounted in plain view on each vehicle provides passengers with location specific and dynamic information for onboard bus passengers arriving or departing.

The information serves more efficiently scheduling and pairing passengers loads to traffic conditions, even though the furthest hotel DSS serves is only 1.5 miles from LAX.

GPS has improved to the point the driver has can now reset the system with a hit of a button to see the locations of buses on the other routes. Drivers are spending much less time on the radio, and it is safe and more efficient to make changes in a schedule or route.

“The 1.5 million miles per year DSS buses travel derive from round trips of no more than three miles,” says Lott. “Over a year the short distances add up. We still take out over six million pounds of CO2 and reduce the number of hotel trips by 55 percent.”

DSS concedes its system is very complex and has taken a long time to implement, but the company has eliminated deadhead miles.BR

Mark R. Aesch

The current belt-tightened economic climate has created the need for public and private sector enterprises alike to explore new areas within their operations for cost-savings and improved efficiencies. At Rochester Genesee Regional Transportation Authority (RGRTA), Rochester, NY, we are known for managing our mid-sized transit organization like a private business. This mindset drives us to actively explore and test new and innovative ideas that produce cost savings and improved efficiencies that will ultimately help us to reduce our reliance on taxpayer subsidies. Only when these ideas, theories, and hypotheses can be monitored and measured for performance do we fully embrace and incorporate them into our operating processes.

In our first year of examination in hopes of saving time and money, we are well into one new avenue of operational change, which involves our deployment of a reliable vendor managed inventory program (VMI). VMI removes us from the business of managing and warehousing parts. Floor-to-ceiling shelves of product and parts tie up money we could use elsewhere in the business.

We have partnered with Neopart, a longtime supplier to the transit industry, to build an on-demand inventory system with the ultimate goal of 100-percent first time fulfillment. Neopart’s experience and knowledge of the transit industry combined with its skill in supply chain management enables the company to efficiently link us to its network of suppliers. In addition, Neopart’s buying power opens the door to substantial cost savings on the parts we purchase.

Certainly anyone who has stocked parts is familiar with costs incurred with buying and holding inventory. For a public transit authority, procuring parts can be a long and cumbersome due to our regulation-based bidding process. And let’s not overlook additional costs associated with personnel time required for handling the ensuing paperwork.

In this arcane scenario, who can blame a warehouse manager or procurement executive for opting to over buy and line shelves with stock for just in case as opposed to just in time.
Most inventory managers will readily admit parts obsolescence is the major risk associated with holding excessively high inventories. An expired part is money out the window.

RGRTA technician Eddie Poole checks on parts electronically in the bus operations facility.

At its core, the VMI system works because the supplier has access to demand information from the transit system and has the responsibility to maintain the inventory so that high availability rates are achieved. The parts manager has the ability to bring information systems, sourcing knowledge and full supply chain visibility so it can deliver the part that is needed quickly and at the best price.

Additionally, the VMI system fundamentally alters the supply chain ordering process by consolidating administration and procurement work in the supplier’s processes, which generates substantial operational cost savings. The result is lower operating costs, less inventory investment, and higher inventory availability.

Now into our fourth quarter of our VMI system, I can safely say that we will be making refinements to the VMI system, but by all accounts it appears to be promising.

This is innovative work that builds close relationships, as well as movement away from staid practices that has allowed us at RGRTA to provide higher quality service and actually reduce our bus fares. We are putting our money where it benefits our customer, rather than wasting it in dusty old stock rooms. Let’s face it, inventory is waste.  We have much better things to do with our money and our limited facility space.

Mark Aesch serves as president and CEO of Rochester Genesee Regional Transportation Authority (RGRTA), Rochester, NY, and is the author of the just-released, Driving Excellence, which details the reconstruction of the Authority’s long-term strategic plan and operating philosophy.

For 120 years Union Station in Louisville, KY has met the needs of travelers. Photos courtesy of Cliff Kuhl

Standing stoically in Louisville, KY is historic Union Station, which has been the gathering place for bus and rail travelers for 120 years. Nearly every immigrant to Louisville and countless service men and women, including General Pershing, entered the city through the doors of Union Station.

Three U.S. Presidents – Franklin D. Roosevelt, Harry S. Truman and Dwight D. Eisenhower – also arrived in Louisville through Union Station. Among other celebrities was singer Sarah Bernhardt, who even tried out her famous voice in the cavernous confines of the waiting room.

“We have a responsibility to be custodians of what is an historic landmark,” says Barry Barker, executive director the Transit Authority of River City, which has occupied Union Station since April 1980.

Recently, TARC received funds to improve service on two of its bus routes. The new technology will enable TARC to run buses no more than 15 minutes apart from 6 a.m. to 9 at night.

“We’re hoping to demonstrate is frequent, steady service for our customers,” Barker says.

From 1891 to 1976, Union Station played a significant role in the history of public transportation in Louisville, Kentucky. Some Louisvillians have many fond memories of the grandeur and drama of passenger train service to and from Louisville’s Union Station. To keep Union Station as the center of public transportation in Louisville, TARC restored the beauty of Union Station and keeps the building open to the public Monday through Saturday.

TARC’s vision was to restore this community jewel and provide office space for its daily business. The board of directors recognized that recycling Union Station would retain the building’s beauty and capitalize on the ecological benefits. Architects valued the building’s natural resources – unusually thick masonry walls, large operable windows, ceramic tile and pine wood floors, red oak wainscots, marble and raised paneled walls, stain glass skylight and rose windows.

The vision of the Transit Authority of River City was to restore Union Station and provide office space for operation of TARC’s daily functions.

The atrium features a large vaulted ceiling lighted by a skylight of 84 panels of stained glass. Several art glass panels grace both the north and south façade. The floor is ceramic tile and marble wainscot and a number of the station’s concourse benches remain in place today.

Passenger rail service reached its peak in mid-1922 with 120 trains arriving or departing daily. By mid-1947, the number of trains had been reduced to 76 a day and by late 1976 only two passenger trains stopped at Union Station. On October 31, 1976, the last passenger train left Union Station for Nashville.

The recent downturn in the economy has forced TARC to cutback 7 percent, leading to a 2 percent loss in ridership. While the economy has slowed, events at Union Station have not. The historic building has been the backdrop for the Louisville Ballet’s end-of-season fundraiser and other prestigious events.

“Sometimes I step back and view Union Station not as a work place but a tremendous piece of architecture,” Barker says. “The place has an aura about it.”  BR

The European-inspired NABI Sirius is built expressly for Hungary transit operations.

North American Bus Industries (NABI), Anniston, AL, recently unveiled the Sirius, a new NABI transit bus specially designed for the Hungarian bus market. While NABI is a major supplier of transit buses in the USA, in recent years its Hungarian operations have been limited to partially finished buses exported to the U.S. for final assembly. Hungarian dignitaries and NABI officials staged ceremonies in Kaposvár, Hungary, in September to commemorate the launch.

The NABI Sirius, a 40-foot bus designed for city and suburban routes, is the first member of a family of products designed to meet the needs of public transportation operators throughout Central Europe.

Its modular construction enables the derivation of alternative sizes, and its versatile driveline arrangement enables the application of the latest clean propulsion systems, including compressed natural gas (CNG) and the emerging hybrid electric-drive systems.

Its German MAN chassis uses a six-speed automatic transmission coupled to a clean, quiet MAN diesel engine, which meets current Euro-5 standards and already fulfills the requirements of the rapidly approaching EEV emissions standards. A bright, spacious interior with three wide doors accommodates up to 113 passengers, and assures safe and efficient passenger flow. The chic and distinctive design of the Sirius will not only please passengers, it will also send a bold and distinctive statement from the transit operator.

“The Sirius is an exciting entry into an exciting market for NABI,” says Jim Marcotuli, NABI president and CEO. “NABI has taken advanced, streamlined body styling features from its popular U.S. ‘BRT’ model and has made important adjustments to meet European standards.”

“Market demand is promising,” says Ferenc Baranyai, director of NABI’s Hungarian operations. He sees a viable market opportunity for the new product. “Local public transportation operators now report collective demand for up to about 3,000 units over the next five years,” Baranyai says.

In recent years NABI’s Hungarian operations in Budapest and Kaposvár only manufactured products exported to the U.S. for final assembly in NABI’s Anniston, AL plant. Interestingly during this time, NABI engineers in Hungary played an integral role in the development of the NABI’s BRT model that inspired the Sirius. With its own engineering and manufacturing capabilities already operational in Hungary, Baranyai is understandably enthusiastic about now producing and delivering finished buses domestically.

NABI says its domestic production of the Sirius will also help stimulate Hungary’s economy through the generation of engineering, manufacturing and service work, and that also will create jobs with domestic suppliers of material and equipment used in the Sirius body.

The debut of the Sirius included ceremonial delivery of the first bus to the city of Kaposvár.

“We have been using NABI buses in our fleet for over five years,” says Jozsef Csapo, general director of Kaposvar Public Transportation, Ltd. “We are quite excited to introduce NABI’s beautiful new Sirius into our fleet.” BR

By Steve Glad

Concept image of Temsa bus.

A crisis can provide an opportunity for change and growth in a company. The Turkish bus manufacturer Temsa could not agree more, crediting the engineering firm LMS International for its bounce back from Turkey’s financial crisis and climb to the top of the global coach and bus market.

Founded in 1968 as part of the Sabanci conglomerate, Temsa made a comfortable living for decades fabricating buses for sale exclusively in Turkey according to designs from Mitsubishi Motors. However, in 2000 and 2001 with a devalued local currency, widespread unemployment, bank failures and financial collapse, Temsa bus sales all but dried up. The firm was on the verge of bankruptcy with 50 percent of its workforce gone.

In the midst of all this, a French distributor quickly needed a fleet of 200 rugged and dependable buses — the type of vehicles Temsa made to withstand the rigors of punishing Turkish roads. The distributor specified the German MAN engine and Temsa engineers scrambled to modify the bus design. Their effort resulted in the launch of the original Temsa Safari long-distance coach, which soon became popular in Europe and saved the company from collapse.

Checking acoustic modes and frequencies for potential coupling at the problem frequencies.

Temsa has gone global since those dark days nine years ago, establishing international offices in Mechelen, Belgium and doing brisk sales across most of Europe, particularly in France, Germany and Italy.

The company says business has also climbed in the Middle East, Africa and Russia, with inroads into Indian, Chinese and U.S. markets. Exports to 40 countries now account for 75 percent of Temsa sales.

From a low of just a handful of vehicles a year and only two models, production has ramped up to meet increased demand for Temsa’s current range of 12 models. They include luxury long-distance coaches, a variety of smaller, lightweight midi buses and a newly launched city bus, the Avenue.

Focus on small customized orders
Temsa attributes these gains to its focus on a niche market design that its bigger competitors have largely shunned. Temsa has become known for fulfilling fast-turnaround, small-scale orders for customized buses that meet very particular customer requests, and typically developed in six to 12 months. Temsa offers an extensive range of 186 variants, all of which can be customized with different engines, transmissions, frames, suspensions and interiors.

A big job for a small staff
A relatively small team of 90 design engineers at the Marmara Research Center in the city of Gebze near Istanbul completes this development work for all Temsa buses. The company says it is a combination of professional enthusiasm and advanced engineering technology.

“Temsa really gives its engineers freedom,” says Bertan Bayram, Temsa CAE and Test Team Leader at the research center. “Our engineers design something and the next day they see the change on the bus.”

Enter LMS International
One of Temsa’s first steps into the global arena came five years ago in its partnership with LMS International, which began with a simple initiative to attain the necessary technological skills, software and hardware to virtually test the durability of its buses.

Previous methods involved long-haul road testing on a commercial test track, usually taking about three to six months. If a part failed or cracked, it would be repaired and the test would continue. This method was by no means foolproof and left room for doubt. The engineers needed a better representation of the actual loads vehicles would encounter on real roads. Also, they could not perform durability testing until a bus prototype was nearing the end of its development cycle when major changes were difficult and costly.

The LMS hybrid road approach
To overcome these drawbacks, Temsa adopted the LMS hybrid road approach to accurately predict the fatigue life of a new vehicle early on. The company developed the model from its work in the automotive industry. The hybrid road approach features the LMS Virtual.Lab multibody simulation and fatigue life prediction software in combination with durability load data analysis and a test system for measurement, data acquisition and signal analysis.

A forced response analysis based on loads in mounts and bus modes.

First, a fully loaded, instrumented processor or “mule” vehicle driven over typical routes in the region allow accelerometers and strain gauges on the wheel center and suspension measurements to create a customer usage profile.

Next, analysis tools determine the fatigue content for each signal measurement part. The cumulative impact of small but highly repetitive loads such as a standard road surface vibration are put together with very large but infrequent loads, such as the wheel hitting a pothole. The LMS data analysis system automatically determines the damage content of these signals, identifies which portion of the CUP test drive produced these loads, and categorizes signals based on amplitude, repetitiveness and duration.

Removing the non-damaging and extraneous portions of signals, the tool generates a condensed wheel load data file of cumulative damage over time.

From this compressed wheel load data file, an inverse transfer function back-calculates an effective road profile of vertical wheel displacements that are more dependent on the road surface characteristics than on the individual vehicle. The road profiles are then used as input to determine fatigue life of the individual components in the bus suspension and frame.

To do this the team counts on the LMS Virtual Lab to simulate aspects of the bus design and predict the fatigue life.

The benefits of a new process
Bayram says engineers can now do a durability assessment in five to seven days. He says the end result is maximized fatigue life combined with the best-possible lightweight design for improved fuel economy.

According to Bayram, shaping the profile of the entire frame to develop the Temsa Space Frame, which is 30 percent lighter than other comparable frames, minimized vehicle weight on the Safari HD. He says this simulation technology also facilitated alternative Temsa bus designs, such as the Avenue city bus based on advanced lightweight materials. The entire roof and floor of the Temsa Avenue is composite-based with high strength-to-weight ratios, making these buses lighter and safer at the same time.

Expanding the use of LMS solutions
Following the success of the hybrid road approach, Temsa most recently increased the range of LMS test systems at its Gebze research center and has added a LMS Virtual Lab Noise and Vibration solution to its repertoire of LMS tools. This gives Temsa engineers the capability to investigate the best placement and materials for engine mounts, for example, and determine noise and vibration flows into the cabin interior through transfer path analysis, frequency response function calculations and acoustic coupling. Such capabilities further reduce bus development times by as much as 10 percent but also helps avoid NVH issues with customers, many of whom have sophisticated NVH testing systems for evaluating vehicles before accepting an order.

Temsa also continues to call on LMS Engineering Services for support when needed, as on a recent torsional vibration problem. After considerable NVH testing, Temsa engineers determined that the vibration was not originating in the Temsa design, but rather a torsional vibration in the powertrain — a transmission problem, which the transmission manufacturer then corrected. Temsa did not have the specialized equipment for this rotating shaft measurement and LMS Engineering Services measurements were able to confirm Temsa’s suspicions. BR

SunLine general manager C. Mikel Oglesby unveils the sixth generation Advanced Technology fuel cell bus (FC2).

February 19, 2010, as the sun was rising in the Coachella Valley, the SunLine Transit Agency staff, board members and members of the community were preparing to celebrate another milestone in the use of cutting edge alternative fueled vehicles.

In our continued path on the Road to Hydrogen, we proudly unveiled the agency’s sixth generation hydrogen fueled vehicle, the Advanced Technology fuel cell bus (FC2). This eye-catching bus with exterior images depicting a child blowing bubbles symbolizes a future of clean, renewable energy now taking place in the Coachella Valley.

This commercial hydrogen fuel cell bus is assembled with the following components: an advanced 40-foot bus chassis by New Flyer Industries; a 150 kW fuel cell from Ballard Power Systems, the latest commercially available ES Subsystem and EMD Subsystem from ISE Corporation, which incorporates both US based components and other components, such as Siemens drive components.

The bus features the latest advances in hydrogen fuel cell reliability, performance and weight reduction. Among the features: a smaller and lighter fuel cell power plant; lighter hydrogen storage tanks; a smaller fuel cell thermal management system; new and improved high voltage battery technology, as well as the latest in diagnostic tools and data collection.

With the support of our funding partners, California Air Resources Board, Federal Transit Administration, South Coast Air Quality Management District, CALSTART, Department of Transportation (funding the data and reporting) and the National Renewable Energy Lab, SunLine Transit Agency has realized another vision.

As the nation focuses on “green” technology and the independence of foreign oil, the agency’s new bus further demonstrates our continued commitment to the commercialization of 40-foot fuel cell buses.

CNG to hydrogen fueled vehicles
Going back a few years, a little history of SunLine traces our advancement in alternative fueled vehicles leading up to zero emission hydrogen fueled buses.

In 1994, SunLine was the first transit agency to convert its entire fleet of diesel-fueled vehicles to compressed natural gas (CNG) fueled vehicles. SunLine already had its focus on hydrogen as the fuel of the future when I arrived in 2005.

However, I realized that the life span of the current fleet was quickly coming to an end. In June of 2008 we replaced and expanded the fleet with the latest in technologically advanced CNG vehicles. The fleet is now in great shape providing public transit using these environmentally friendly vehicles as we continue to concentrate on putting more zero emission hydrogen fueled buses into service.

SunLine’s history in hydrogen-fueled vehicles began in 2000 in partnership with the California Fuel Cell Partnership, conducting a 13-month demonstration of the ZEbus, a 40-foot New Flyer equipped with a Ballard fuel cell power plant.

Then on to the Thor 30 foot ISE drive system, UTC fuel vehicle. From there, in December 2004, the agency took great pride in placing into service, the “first in the nation” Hydrogen Hybrid Internal Combustion (HHICE) New Flyer bus.

Just one year later, SunLine received and put into service the hydrogen fuel cell bus, (FC1). These buses, and the newest addition of the AT fuel cell bus, are the hydrogen flagship of SunLine and continue to operate in service. Actively driven, monitored and scrutinized, these buses have racked up close to 200,000 miles to date.

While other transit agencies are only beginning to venture into the hydrogen arena, introducing a first generation hydrogen vehicle, SunLine now has six generations of hydrogen buses in service in the Coachella Valley. No other transit system in the United States can make that claim.

No intention of stopping at six
Watch for the next generation hydrogen fueled bus at SunLine Transit Agency in 2011.
We are currently working closely with the FTA as part of the National Fuel Cell Bus Program on the first American Fuel Cell bus. The bus represents a unique opportunity to compare technologies and to develop the market. SunLine has put together a new team to bring this bus into fruition consisting of BAE, El Dorado Bus and Ballard Power Systems.

SunLine recently upgraded the hydrogen station to a commercial reformer, upgrading the fuel island to include a dedicated hydrogen bus hose and a commercial third party card reader system.

Hydrogen station and infrastructure
The Agency continues its innovative role, focusing on sustainability through its state of the art public fueling station, SunFuels. In 2000, SunLine moved forward with the first public refueling station to provide hydrogen, as well as HCNG, a blend of hydrogen and natural gas. In 2006, SunLine took ownership of its two fueling stations taking of another first — the first transit agency to own and operate a hydrogen generation and dispensing station.

The hydrogen station has produced and dispensed over 26,000 hydrogen kilograms with 99 percent reliability. With the support of South Coast Air Quality Management District and the Federal Transit Association, SunLine recently upgraded the hydrogen station to a commercial reformer, upgrading the fuel island to include a dedicated hydrogen bus hose and a commercial third party card reader system.

The public and outside fleet customers can purchase hydrogen 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Several automobile manufacturers received a SunFuels card to fuel their most recent hydrogen vehicle projects affirming that SunLine’s influence affects more than the transit industry. This station is part of Governor Schwarzenegger’s California Hydrogen Highway.

Serving as general manager of SunLine Transit Agency over the past six years, I share the pride of the board of directors and staff as we have continued through economic difficulty to focus on the agency’s mission to provide safe and environmentally-conscious public transportation services and alternative fuel solutions that meet the mobility needs of the Coachella Valley.

The United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) recently recognized SunLine in the category of “Clean Air Technology” for continued leadership in the use of zero emission hydrogen fuel cell vehicles in service. EPA also recognized us as the first transit agency to own and operate a public hydrogen generation and dispensing station, SunFuels, which further demonstrates the continued commitment by the board of directors and SunLine staff to the commercialization of hydrogen as the nation watches.

SunLine continues to seek out worthy programs that benefit the entire transit industry and is willing to be a unit of measure, or a beacon of hope, to the future of the hydrogen landscape throughout the world. As a leader in clean air technology, SunLine brings the experience of the past to the present and into the future.

C. Mikel Oglesby serves as general manager for the SunLine Transit Agency, Thousand Palms, CA.

UTC Power has powered three AC Transit buses more than 255,000 miles.

UTC Power, South Windsor, CT, has set durability records for its latest generation transit bus fuel cell system. According to the company its PureMotion® Model 120 fuel cell powerplant aboard an Alameda-Contra Costa Transit District (AC Transit) bus operating in the greater Oakland, CA, area has surpassed 7,000 hours in service with the original cell stacks and no cell replacements, and another has exceeded 6,000 hours.

“We have worked very hard at UTC Power over the past several years to improve our fuel cell stack durability, which is a key challenge in commercializing fuel cell vehicles,” says Ken Stewart, UTC Power vice president, transportation. “These operating hour numbers demonstrate our significant progress.”

Three AC Transit buses equipped with UTC Power fuel cell systems have now traveled more than 255,000 miles, with an average fuel economy that is 65 percent better than the control fleet of diesel buses running the same routes and duty cycles.

UTC Power says transit buses with fuel cell systems can have a major impact on greenhouse gas reduction, ranging from a 43 percent reduction over diesel buses if hydrogen is supplied from the reformation of natural gas, up to a 100 percent reduction when hydrogen is generated from on-site renewable sources such as solar and wind power.

According to Jaimie Levin, director of alternative fuels, and policy and hydrogen fuel cell program manager, AC Transit will apply the newest UTC Power fuel cell systems in its new fleet of 12 next-generation buses over the next six months.BR

The many innovations at the UITP conference and exhibition in June in Vienna, Austria, may have overshadowed the significance of the latest generation of fuel cell bus from Mercedes-Benz.

Hartmut Schick, head of Daimler Buses, emphasized the latest generation is not a prototype, but another important step on the path to zero-emission public transport, and an important element in the development of mobility solutions of the future. The Citaro FuelCELL-Hybrid bus is a response to growing calls for a drive system that was emission-free and helped to conserve resources at the same time.

The initial price of fuel cell vehicles is still a major barrier, compared with conventional diesel buses, but Mercedes-Benz has the major advantage of being able to share development and production costs over a wide product range. The service life and reliability of fuel cells will continue to improve and produce further efficiencies. As demand for fuel cells increases, we also can expect unit costs to come down.

In ten years time the operating cost per mile of fuel cell buses, compared with conventional diesel or gas-powered buses, might be much more attractive, especially when one factors in the environmental friendliness.

Mercedes-Benz has been working on alternative fuels and drive systems for more than 40 years, and presented its first hybrid city bus at the Frankfurt Motor Show in 1969. A 65hp four-cylinder 3.8-liter engine provided thermal power with electrical energy stored in five large blocks of batteries weighing more than three tons. The DC electric traction motor developed a steady 156hp and 204bhp peak output at low speeds — well ahead of the normal power of city buses at that time. One advanced feature was an electric brake to recoup braking energy.

Over the years Mercedes-Benz developed more hybrid prototypes as well as duo-buses that could run with standard diesel engines or power from overhead lines like a trolleybus. Its hybrid development culminated in November 2007 with the launch of the Citaro G BlueTec hybrid articulated bus powered by a small diesel engine or a fuel cell power pack.

In 1997 I visited the Mercedes-Benz bus and coach sales center in Frankfurt, Germany, where one of the senior managers showed me the very interesting prototype of the NEBUS, a low-floor city bus fitted with a first-generation Ballard fuel cell. This large unit under the floor behind the rear axle raised the rear of the bus four steps higher up than the low front section. The hydrogen stored in gas cylinders on the roof.

If I remember rightly, the fuel cell drove through a conventional fully automatic gearbox to the rear axle and the performance was quite astonishing and silent for a heavy bus. In the absence of the normal hard-working diesel engine, I suddenly became aware of other noises from the suspension, power-steering pump and particularly the tires.

It was a cold and blustery day in Frankfurt and the only emissions were steam emerging at roof level from a tail pipe located vertically behind the panels at the rear of the bus. When we stopped at traffic lights, a driver in a large truck pulled up behind us and shook his head sadly, obviously thinking that another silly bus driver was about to blow up his engine.

That research program encouraged Mercedes-Benz to continue developments with fuel cells. Costs might have been prohibitive if confined solely to city buses, but fortunately other product groups within Daimler were also interested in the future of fuel cells and shared costs. A number of fuel companies took part in the project to gain experience of various alternative methods of production of the hydrogen fuel.

In 2003 Mercedes-Benz unveiled its next generation of fuel cell buses, delivering 36 Citaro low-floor buses in batches of three, to 10 European cities as well as Perth, Australia and Beijing, China. The operating conditions of the chosen cities varied widely, from flat to hilly terrain. The cities also varied in climate from winters in Iceland and Sweden to summers in Spain and Portugal.

Although the Mercedes-Benz engineers knew they would obtain greater efficiency from a hybrid drive system, they chose to use a simpler drivetrain to easier identify and rectify any problem. On each bus the fuel cell provided electric current to a generator coupled to a standard ZF fully automatic gearbox and to the same type of portal rear axle widely used in conventional diesel-powered buses.

The packaging of the components on these buses was much better than on the original NEBUS prototype. The floor was only one step above the ground from the front entrance to the third door, behind the rear axle.

The participating cities and engineering teams kept in constant contact. All were aware of the safety implications of running such advanced buses in regular service. The fuel cell buses were part of a total system, with a major concern being the supply, storage and delivery of hydrogen. If a problem occurred at any one of the filling stations, they all shut down for safety reasons until they found a solution.

Taken out of service at the end of the trial period, the performance of the vehicles exceeded the expectations of the engineering team. Collectively they accumulated more than 1,250,000 miles over more than 135,000 hours of operation.

Their 90 and 95 percent availability provided an impressive demonstration of the suitability of fuel cell drive systems for everyday use in regular urban service. Ballard continued to develop more efficient and compact fuel cells.

Now Mercedes-Benz has launched the Citaro FuelCELL-Hybrid bus. Although a standard two-axle 40-ft low-floor city bus, many of the components other than the fuel cell are common with the earlier articulated diesel-electric hybrid.

Compared to previous models, the FuelCELL-Hybrid bus is around one ton lighter. New technology extends the service life of the fuel cells by around 50 percent to at least six years, as efficiency has increased from 51 to 58 percent, compared with 38 to 43 percent for the previous generation.

The hybrid drive system uses less hydrogen, reducing the number of roof-mounted fuel tanks from nine to seven.

Electrical energy stored in compact lithium-ion batteries supply the two water-cooled wheel hub motors with a constant 120kW — sufficient energy for the bus to run a few miles on battery power alone. Two stacks of 396 individual fuel cells fit into the full height compartment at the rear of the bus opposite the third door.

Heat exchangers to the rear of the stacks use the waste heat from the fuel cells to heat the passenger compartment. Four fans evacuate the hot air if heating is not necessary. The only exhaust emission is harmless water vapor.

Mercedes-Benz will build a small production run of the new FuelCELL-Hybrid buses this year, followed by 10 that will enter service in Hamburg next year. The German city is a great fan of fuel cell vehicles, having not only retained the three it took under the test program in 2003, but also a further six vehicles acquired after their trials in Stockholm and Stuttgart. The forward plans of Mercedes-Benz include further in-service testing in customer fleets at a European level.

Doug Jack is with Transport Resources in the United Kingdom.

By Bethanie Hestermann

The SRW is the smallest of the three MyBus models, seats 14 passengers and does not require a commercial vehicle license in many states.

Professionals at Thomas Built Buses, High Point, NC, a subsidiary of Daimler Trucks North America, spent the last twelve months cultivating a new business venture from the germination of an idea to the full construction of MyBus, the company’s latest addition to its line up.

Designed for simplicity, safety and style, Thomas Built plans to position this new multi-function student activity bus (MFSAB) as the solution for small organizations that frequently move people but are not in the people-moving business, such as childcare centers, churches and community organizations.

The niche has always existed in the transportation market. But Bob West, MyBus product manager, says the unique needs of these clients were not being fully met and the opportunity was too ripe to ignore. Building on its successful Minotour model—a Type A vehicle designed primarily for the school bus market—the company analyzed the niche and responded with MyBus.

Easy does it
John O’Leary, president and CEO of Thomas Built Buses, says non-traditional small bus customers such as youth groups, YMCAs and daycare centers are likely MyBus customers.

“Unlike school transportation departments, customers in this market segment are not bus experts and do not need or want a product with a complex list of options,” says O’Leary. “They are looking for a simple, low-cost transportation solution that is safer than a 15-passenger van and just as easy to drive.”
Unlike the Minotour, its sister product that has hundreds of options, MyBus comes in only three models with very simple options:

• The SRW is the same width as a passenger van for around-town trips and seats up to 14 passengers, which does not require a commercial vehicle license in many states.
• The DRW 041 has dual rear wheels, room for 20 passengers and optional coach seating.
• The DRW 051 has dual rear wheels, can seat 30 passengers and also has optional coach seating.

All seats meet FMVSS standards and seatbelts are available in all three models.

MyBus is simplistic, stylish and easy to drive.

“The same engineering and materials that go into our big school buses go into the MyBus line,” says West. “This means MyBus has a standard steel cage body with one-piece roof frames, 16-gage metal side panels, roof and side crash rail protection and steel buffers with a wrap-around design.”

Other features include a rear emergency exit door, full-height 73-inch interior head room and a wide center aisle. West says options include overhead luggage racks and storage compartments in the rear of the vehicle.

MFSABs must meet the same safety standards as school buses, but do not require a stop arm, traffic control lights or a yellow paint job. O’Leary says year after year studies show that school buses, which include MFSABs, are the safest form of surface transportation available to the public—a prime selling point for MyBus over passenger vans.

Selling MyBus
Part of the MyBus objective is to ensure the product is easy to buy. For this reason West says they plan to keep the product in inventory at Thomas dealers nationwide, so that customers can look at the bus one day and drive it off the lot the next day.

“What we’ve been able to do with MyBus is to create a separate business unit with its own resources and distribution channel,” O’Leary says. “The niche calls for a different product, different sales and marketing strategies and a different mindset from the manufacturer and our dealers.”

West says the new line is durable, reliable and easy to repair. Built on a GM chassis, MyBus can receive service at any local GM dealer. The company plans to tout the fact that Thomas Built has dedicated MyBus service professionals in every state and province to maintain the product, as well as an extensive customer service network throughout North America.

“We recognize there’s a difference between selling to schools and to what we internally refer to as this ‘non-traditional’ market,” says West. “Our marketing efforts will be more Internet-focused because MyBus customers prefer to do their research online as opposed to sorting through manufacturer specs and bid sheets.”

He says the company conducted a lot of research up front, collecting good input from customers and dealers in the early stages of development. The enthusiasm among employees also helped move the project along quickly.

Despite the economic recession, West says Thomas Built is committed to innovation and leadership in the industry and the introduction of MyBus is no exception.

“We have the niche, we have the product and we have the sales and service organizations to make it successful,” says West. “MyBus is an exciting project, and we are off to a great start.” BR