The idea of travelling between Dubai and Abu Dhabi on the 250kph Superbus may be catching the eye of the media, but the latest generation of hybrid engines could be the most important pieces of technology to come out of this week’s UITP event in Dubai.
The International Association of Public Transport (UITP) is the biggest show of its kind dedicated to urban transport.
Urban transport planning has become a pre-occupation for the region’s governments and has already spawned projects like Dubai’s Metro and Makkah light railway. However there is much more to be done if a UITP report is correct in its estimation that by 2025 the number of trips made in urban areas will increase by 50%.
“In a business-as-usual scenario, that is to say, following current trends, this means that, between 2005 and 2025, the share of private motorised transport will grow and the volume of traffic on urban roads will increase by 60% with correlated lost hours in traffic congestion and urban transport energy consumption will reach 890 million tons of oil equivalent per year; and GHG emissions from urban transport will increase by 30%,” said the report. “The solution is to double market share by 2025.”
A growth boom is also forecast for the Gulf region. According to Siemen’s the market in Africa and the Middle East is expected to grow at an annual rate of about 4.5 per cent by 2016.
The region’s transport authorities are keeping their options in terms of how they will meet this requirement, inviting a number of big name technology providers to use the event as showcase for their own solutions.
The name of BAE Systems is a familiar one in aerospace and military industry circles. It also has its third largest operation based in Saudi Arabia where it employs 5,200 people.
A spokesman for the company revealed to PMV yesterday that the company was looking to launch a HybriDrive hybrid engine in the region for buses at the show. He also said that BAE Systems has entered into an agreement with UK company Dennis Eagle to integrate a heavy duty hybrid electric propulsion system into one of their cab vehicles.
“They’re two products that we think can do really well in this generation of engines,” said BAE System business development manager Chris Colston. “HybriDrive is proven technology in over 3,000 buses and has been used in San Francisco, New York and London, and we’ve identified urban areas that it could work here too. We estimate that the existing vehicles have travelled 200 million miles, saved 10 million gallons of fuel and 100,000 tonnes of CO2.”
While hybrid leads this generation of engines and transportation, future urban transportation will largely be dominated by electric mobility, said Hans-Jörg Grundmann, chief of the Siemens Mobility Division.
Electrically powered means of transportation, such as metros, tramway systems and buses, reduce energy consumption and conserve the environment, he added.
A study by business consultants Booz Allen Hamilton concluded that the world’s major cities will be investing more than five trillion euros in their road and rail infrastructures by the year 2035.
“Those are very good conditions for us as the world’s leading supplier of integrated transportation and logistics solutions. We want to secure part of this growth, among other things with our new Inspiro metro platform,” said Grundmann.
