Last week Göteborg, my home town, became the warm and welcoming home for 25 brand new hybrid buses. It’s really special to see our dear hybrid buses being welcomed by politicians, the operator Göteborgs Spårvägar and by the public transport authority Västtrafik. The new buses give Göteborg the 4th largest hybrid bus fleet in Europe, if I’m not miscalculating.
Picture: Inauguration of 25 hybrid buses in Göteborg
Göteborgs Spårvägar, the local tramways, started their first tram rout in 1879. And, the first bus rout in 1896. This year was later to become significant in many ways. If I managed to maneuver right in the literature, this was the year when Rudolf Diesel demonstrated the diesel engine for the first time, in Köln. It was also the year when Ferdinand Porsche demonstrated one of the first electrical hybrid cars. Later the same year Örgryte Idrottssällskap won the first Swedish championship in Soccer, by 0-3 against Helsingborg, away from home.
Those important milestones were later picked up by the Volvo hybrid project that resulted in the launch of the 7700 Hybrid in 2010.
The new technology has made great achievements, which I have written about many times. Still it seems that each city discovers its own advantages of the hybrid bus technology. Göteborg has an advanced real time information system. The passenger can see when the next bus will arrive and the traffic control center get real time information on the position and needs of the bus.
