Resumen
Public transport is one of the backbones of sustainable transport strategies in Europe. Collective transport has undisputed benefits concerning space efficiency. Today, more than 90% of buses in Europe depend on diesel, calling for better environmental and post-fossil alternatives. Further electrification of public transport (in combination with green electricity production) is a core aspect of further improving the environmental profile of public transport. Investments in electrifying public transport have a particularly high impact since urban public transport vehicles run up to 16 hours per day, compared to less than one hour for the average conventional car. A single 18 m urban bus consumes about 40,000 litres diesel annually ? equivalent to more than 100 tons of CO2! THE EU ELIPTIC project is looking at the electrification of urban buses as well as the improvement of energy performance in light rail and the multi-purpose use of infrastructure to support further electrification in transport. ELIPTIC is demonstrating technical approaches in 20 showcases with variations of electrified public transport under different operational, geographical and climate conditions. The demonstrations include new battery buses of high passenger capacity (18 m articulated) as they are increasingly in demand by public transport operators. Another concept is the combination of battery and trolley bus concepts, allowing to recharge batteries in operation (when connected to the overhead wires) and giving trolley bus cities an opportunity to extend the electric operation into areas without overhead wires. All in all, the concepts of battery volume and recharging need to be adapted to operational conditions. There is high interest by cities and public transport operators in such concepts and related business cases. Associations of public transport operators (UITP, VDV and ASSTRA) and of cities (POLIS) play a major role in dissemination and in organising ?twinnings? and exchange between the showcases and other interested cities and operators. It is an explicit objective of the project to develop business cases by showing how costs and energy can be saved by electrifying public transport and by optimising the use of existing infrastructure and rolling stock.