Bus on stilts to beat Beijing gridlock (very inventive) [View All]

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http://www.atimes.com/atimes/China_Business/LH28Cb01.html


Chinese entrepreneur Song Youzhou reckons he has found a way for commuters to leapfrog the horrendous traffic jams that increasingly bring his country's cities to a grinding halt.

Song's solution is a 43-meter long "straddling bus" that runs astride the road on tracks, allowing it pass over vehicles underneath while an upper level carries as many as 1,200 passengers. A test-run of his futuristic vehicle - dubbed the "3D Fast Bus" - is planned for early next year on a track to be built in Beijing's Mentougou district. China South Locomotive & Rolling Stock Corporation, one of the country's top two state-owned rolling stock manufacturers, will make the prototype vehicle.

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An Argentine government delegation is to visit Beijing this weekend for discussions with Shenzhen Huashi, Song said. China and Argentina last month announced a co-invested US$10 billion railway project, including purchases of high-speed trains from for a planned high-speed railway in the Latin American nation.

Officials from India's Transport Ministry have invited Song and his company for a meeting in Beijing on September 16, and Mexico is to sign a letter of intent on technical co-operation for the bus early next month, which would lead to a similar project being built in Mexico, Song said. An American company will also sign a letter of intent for the bus, according to Song, without giving details.

The 3D Fast Bus bus will be powered by roof-mounted solar panels, with back-up from power points at bus stops. The vehicles, with passengers traveling at 40 kilometers an hour more than 2 meters above the ground, will run on existing roads that will require only a few amendments, including installation of track on each side and high platforms for boarding and alighting. That means it will take only one year to build a 40km track for bus, compared with about three years for an equivalent underground railway.
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we are so behind the times and not even trying to catch up