When I first saw the concept video, I thought the Transit Elevated Bus (TEB) a.k.a Straddling bus was something for the future.
Well I thought wrong. The TEB had its first test run in Qinhuangdao, Hebei province in China on Tuesday August 2, 2016. I don’t know whether to call it a bus or a train but it is live.
This mass transit electric bus which looks like a moving tunnel is designed for congested areas. It is built to carry up to 1,400 passengers and it is tall enough to allow any car under seven feet to travel underneath.
According to Shanghaiist, the test-run didn’t exactly simulate real world traffic conditions with just one bus carriage on a controlled track of only 300 meters in length.
In its finished form, the TEB is supposed to zoom above the street, while traffic slips conveniently underneath. Its engineer says it will be able to carry up to 1,200 passengers and travel at 60 kilometres per hour. Similar to a subway, it would cost five times less and take only a year to finish.
This is what it looks like inside the bus.
The chief engineer, Song Youzhou, told China’s official news agency, Xinhua that the bus may help cities become more environmentally friendly.
“Its size would allow it to replace 40 conventional buses and, since it’s powered by electricity, the design would reduce fuel consumption by some 800 tons and carbon emissions by nearly 2,500 tons every year”
Check out the bus in action below
