Public transport’s unlikely makeover

From fuel cell buses to maglev trains, public transport is about to achieve the seemingly impossible. Lorraine Mallinder reports.

Public transport is currently in the throes of a radical makeover. Casting off its creaky image of old, it is now preparing for the era of green chic with sleek new fleets of fuel cell buses and maglev trains that speed passengers to their destination on a cushion of air. Public transport has achieved the previously unimaginable; it has become sexy.

Mindful of the importance of the sector both in economic and environmental terms, the European Commission will place public transport at the centre of its forthcoming green paper on urban transport, expected this September.

In economic terms, urban centres, which generate more than two-thirds of EU gross domestic product, need efficient public transport systems to work efficiently. Environmentally, creating better public transport networks is the only way to tackle such urban blights as congestion, pollution and noise.

The root cause of current inefficiencies would appear to be that public transport planning has, up to now, been rather messy. Away from the glitz of faster, cleaner, more sophisticated public transport technologies, interested parties will be pushing hard to ensure that Jacques Barrot, the European commissioner for transport, introduces the structural changes needed for a cohesive and consistent EU-wide public transport policy.

"The idea is that the role of the EU institutions should be to set the right framework conditions that will enable the integration of national and EU policy," says Aline Talabard of the International Association of Public Transport (UITP). She insists on the importance of allowing local authorities to retain a strong role in policymaking. Supervisory mechanisms could, she adds, be embedded in relevant Commission departments covering areas such as research, employment, environment and regional policy.

With public transport provision across the EU now a mish-mash of state and private competence, the UITP would be keen to see a legal framework governing minimum standards of service at EU level. Additional suggestions from the organisation include the obligation for urban centres of more than 100,000 inhabitants to draw up long-term sustainability plans and the use of structural funds for modernisation of public transport.

Stakeholders contributing to a Commission-led consultation on the forthcoming green paper felt particularly concerned about quality control of EU-wide initiatives. Subsidiarity, while generally considered a wise approach to transport policy, would appear to have its limits. Nina Renshaw, of the European Federation for Transport and Environment, says that the ‘financing lines’ that the EU can give to member states should be used as a means of retaining control over operational programmes.

This is especially true with new member states with runaway economic growth. Once heavily dependent on buses, trams and trains, these countries will be less inclined to invest in public transport planning. In Poland, for example, cohesion and structural funds are being ploughed into the extension of its far sexier motorway network. And here resides the crux of the problem: for all the promise of sophisticated new networks, public transport will for the foreseeable future face stiff competition from cars. While public transport may be the ultimate in greenness, cars are still considered to be a serious economic driver.

Fuel cell buses

Whizzing through traffic on a hydrogen fuel cell may seem to some like a futuristic pipe-dream. But buses powered by hydrogen have already been navigating European roads for years, thanks to pilot projects funded by the European Commission. The HyFleet: CUTE project is the latest of these, putting hydrogen buses in seven EU cities, plus Reykjavik, Beijing and Perth, Australia. Buses that consume hydrogen either convert it to electricity through a chemical reaction in a fuel cell, or burn it in an internal combustion engine.

Fuel cells are generally deemed more efficient, but BMW is developing an internal combustion hydrogen car for production that offers the speed and performance of a high-end luxury car. Fuel cells can be made even more efficient by the application of technology currently used in gas-electric hybrid cars - capturing the electrical energy lost in braking. The first ‘hybrid fuel-cell bus’ began ferrying passengers between Antwerp and Lier, Belgium, this week. The super-efficient, zero-emission bus has the same range and capacity as normal buses.

Hydrogen technology is seen as a way of reducing dependence on oil while cutting greenhouse gasses. Hydrogen fuel can be produced from water by electrolysis with any source of electricity. However, the hydrogen can only be as clean as the electricity source used to create it. And while electrolysis holds promise, it is more expensive than extracting hydrogen from fossil fuels, currently the most commonly used method. Hydrogen production will have to become more efficient and renewable electricity less expensive if hydrogen cars are to cut greenhouse gases.

Driverless metros

Copenhagen’s five-year-old metro system is perhaps most remarkable for what it does not have - drivers. The completely automatic metro system offers many benefits to passengers. Without the need for a driver in every car, trains are shorter and more frequent, cutting journey times. Signals in the track tell the train when to stop, brake and accelerate. Automatic track barriers and sensors protect passengers.

According to a working group on unattended train operation put together by the International Association of Public Transport (UITP), a public transport think-tank, unattended metro systems offer benefits for both operators and travellers. Not having drivers allows metro staff to focus more on customers. Unattended trains are more reliable and use less energy, because train acceleration and speed can be programmed to optimise energy consumption. A driverless line in Paris uses 50% less energy than conventional lines, according to UITP.

Despite obvious fears, Copenhagen’s metro has a near-perfect safety record, and polls point to high public satisfaction with the system, according to Gunni Frederiksen, who represented Copenhagen’s metro as a member of the working group. The Danish parliament agreed on 1 June to add a new ‘City Circle Line’ with 17 new stations.

Maglev trains

The next trend in air travel could be travelling 15 millimetres above the ground. Magnetic levitation (maglev) train technology is at last beginning to make its way into commercial deployment, after more than 30 years of development by Germany’s Transrapid consortium and others.

The technology governing magnetic levitation trains has improved drastically as computer processing speed has increased, enabling current magnetic levitation models to reach speeds of over 500 km/h, with acceleration to 200 km/h within only 60 seconds. A magnetic levitation train is under development to connect the Munich airport with downtown Munich in about ten minutes, a ride that currently takes 45 minutes to an hour. A project is also being discussed in the UK. The only high-speed magnetic levitation train currently in commercial use connects the Shanghai international airport with the city’s metro system at 430 km/h.

Magnetic levitation trains are pulled along the magnetic track by an electric current. By eliminating friction, magnetic levitation trains offer passengers a smoother and quieter journey, and run far more efficiently than conventional trains. Although high-speed projects receive most of the attention, low-speed maglev trains, such as one built in Nagoya, Japan, are a "superior alternative to light rail", according to Kevin Coates, a maglev consultant. The trains are more efficient, able to climb steeper grades, and are virtually immune from weather problems because they do not have touch the track. The line in Nagoya had a 99.97% on-time rate, according to Coates.

From fuel cell buses to maglev trains, public transport is about to achieve the seemingly impossible. Lorraine Mallinder reports.