Ed Gillespie, Futurist, Autor, Facilitator  

Do you like busing?

Of course I like the bus. In London, I’m on the bus almost every day. I try to count the different languages I hear on the bus in the morning which is usually half a dozen. It is a real socialization engine.

Which role can buses play in the mobility of the future?

The only way we can handle growing urbanization is the mass transport. It has a massive role to play in the future. We have to reclaim road spaces for vehicles like the buses, as it is the best way to bring a large number of people through dense urban areas.

What will bus travel be like in the year 2050?

It will be different, for sure. Bus traffic has a huge role to play in urbanization as well as in reacting on climate change. Probably we’ll see smaller, electrical vehicles, probably there will be a similar kind of shared facilities as it is, but with much more flexibility. It will perhaps not even have set routes, with intelligent algorithms controlling how people are moving in a much more dynamic and flexible way. Mobility will be a very different experience while the need to travel will be a lot less.

ViaVan is no stranger to Berlin. Together with Berlin’s public transport network, it runs the ride-sharing project "BerlKönig" in the BUS2BUS city. The partners occupy a middle ground between taxis and buses where large-capacity vehicles are ready to bring several people to a variety of destinations along a route. Software bundles customer enquiries and determines the best transport routes. When the model is introduced, it should help prevent congestion and emissions as well as increase the efficiency of the trips. ViaVan advises and assists companies and entities planning pooling services to define parameters and marketing. Mercedes-Benz Vans and Via also work together to develop further modern mobility solutions, including autonomous driving.   

KEYOU products promise the greatest efficiency in terms of sustainability: The company converts conventional combustion engines to run on hydrogen. At BUS2BUS, the company's founders from the Bavarian city of Unterschleißheim will present a truck diesel engine model that can be transformed into an emission-free hydrogen drive with minimal modification of the basic unit. The range of the six-cylinder engine with a cubic capacity of 7.8 litres is more than 350 kilometres, the engine power is 180 kW (245 hp), and a single refuelling session takes about 15 minutes, which meals that the engine can also be charged at bus line terminals. The exhaust consists purely of water vapour. The technology is therefore considered to be emission-free in line with the latest EU legislation. However, another crucial sustainability factor is that there is minimal scrap when converting the engine.

The electric urban bus has gotten its wide rear window back. "We no longer need the engine tower in the back," says Siegfried Seidel of MAN Truck & Bus Germany GmbH, introducing the Lion's City 12 E at BUS2BUS. As a result, the interior is brighter, there is still a low floor design for passenger convenience, and the entire interior feels very uncluttered.

The batteries are located on the roof and therefore outside the zone with a high risk of collisions. The central electric motor is near the rear axle, which it also powers. The second axle is powered in the articulated bus model, which gives the vehicle  a maximum output of 270 kW. "We discarded the wheel drive idea when designing this standard bus to make the replacement of components as flexible as possible," says Seidel. This reduces development, production and acquisition costs.

The seats are mounted on rails along the side walls, increasing the seating flexibility and greatly facilitating cleaning. The same applies to the handrails. Seidel emphasises that unlimited connectivity with USB ports and WLAN is, of course, also possible in this bus if requested by the customer when they place the order.

Whoever has always been frustrated about how complicated it is to draw up deployment plans for their bus network can find a solution in the cloud. Many companies still use blackboards, cards, paper and pens or, at best, old software to solve this network problem. "There is no mathematical solution," says Roni Floman, Vice President of Marketing for the Israeli company Optibus. This company offers cloud-based solutions to optimise the planning of duty rosters and timetables for public transport enterprises. Thanks to optimised algorithms and artificial intelligence, these SaaS (Software as a Service) solutions can coordinate the movements of each vehicle and driver in a city-wide transport ecosystem, select the best options available to transportation companies and agencies, and provide better service to passengers. This method helps to reduce the operating costs that are indicated to the user during the planning process.

Susanne Tschenisch
PR Manager BUS2BUS
T: 030-3038 2295
M: tschenisch@messe-berlin.de