Helsinki may introduce hybrid buses already next year

Trolleybus era might also make a return

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Helsinki City Transport (HKL) is to introduce a few buses that run on both diesel and electricity. These so-called hybrid buses may appear on the streets of the Finnish capital as soon as the end of 2008.
      So far, only the nearby city of Lahti has experimented with a hybrid bus in Finland. In Lahti, test runs have been carried out since last month with one hybrid bus developed by a firm called Kabus in cooperation with the Technical Research Centre of Finland, but thus far without passengers.
     
In Helsinki the buses will be tested on routes in the central city area. According to HKL planning director Ville Lehmuskoski, the vehicles could possibly be tested on routes 14, 15, 16, and 18.
      "We intend that passengers will immediately be able to use the test buses, which will be clearly marked so that they stand out in traffic", Lehmuskoski says.
      With the hybrid buses, HKL aims to reduce the fuel consumption and emissions of public transportation. Instead of converting the braking energy into friction heat, which is what normal brakes do, the hybrids convert this energy into electricity, which is stored in battery packs. This electric energy is then re-used as the bus accelerates.
     
Hybrid buses have most widely been used in the United States and Canada. According to Lehmuskoski, they use 30 percent less fuel than normal diesel buses. They are also quieter.
      "The hybrid vehicles are particularly well suited for city traffic, where accelerations and decelerations happen frequently", Lehmuskoski says.
     
The test run will last for at least six months. Should the results prove positive, HKL will make an effort to introduce hybrid buses into the regular service in early 2011.
      At the moment, the hybrid vehicles are around 50 per cent more expensive than normal buses. Lehmuskoski believes, however, that the price will come down once the hybrids become more common. "The use of hybrid buses provides an efficient way to quickly reduce emissions and energy consumption."
     
HKL is also looking into the possibility of reintroducing trolleybuses in the capital area public transportation. Trolleybuses receive the power to run their electric motors from overhead cables in the same fashion as trams do.
      Trolleybuses were in use in the Helsinki public transportation from the 1940s up until February 1985. The 14 line - one of those suggested for the new hybrids experiment - was the last HKL trolley line.
      The City of Tampere also used trolleybuses until the 1970s.
      Worldwide, around 400 cities use trolleybuses these days. Of these, 300 are in the former Communist countries, but of late new trolleybus systems have also been introduced in Western Europe, for example in France, Great Britain, Italy, and Spain.
     
"There is plenty of interest towards trolleybuses. They do not impair the air quality, and the equipment is relatively cheap to introduce compared to trams, which require rails", Lehmuskoski says.
      The availability of such vehicles has also improved. Russians are currently building a trolleybus factory in Ethiopia, which, once completed, will produce 5,000 modern vehicles per year. In addition, there are Western European companies that also produce trolleybuses.
     
In the 1980s Helsinki gave up on the electric buses, because they were said to be 15 per cent costlier to operate than the diesel equivalent.
      Now HKL wants to take a second look at this assessment, in the light of technological developments and the increasing weight being laid on environmental concerns.


Links:
  Trolleybus (Wikipedia)
  Hybrid Electric Vehicle (Wikipedia)

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