European Bus Rapid Transit of 2030: electrified, automated, connected

Project Information

EBRT2030

Grant agreement ID: 101095882

DOI

10.3030/101095882

EC signature date 19 December 2022

Start date 1 January 2023

End date 31 December 2026

Funded under

• Climate, Energy and Mobility

Total cost

€ 30 351 916,71

EU contribution

€ 22 776 213,57

Coordinated by

UNION INTERNATIONALE DES TRANSPORTS PUBLICS
Belgium

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - EBRT2030 (European Bus Rapid Transit of 2030: electrified, automated, connected)

Reporting period: 2023-01-01 to 2024-06-30

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

Currently, road and transport emissions have a significant impact in polluting cities and as such, green, clean and smart mobility efforts are required to achieve the objectives set by the EC. Public transportation is at the core of efforts for achieving sustainable mobility. Recently major developments occurred the evolution of urban bus systems. Electric Bus Rapid Transit (EBRT) is one of these new solutions that can help improve the sustainability of cities and provide an innovative, modern, and high-quality service to citizens. In this context, new technologies and innovations are stimulating the evolution of the BRT systems towards electrification, automation, and increased integration with other transport modes. A new EBRT needs to incorporate these developments and consider the specificity of European urban areas. The project has the objective of creating and demonstrating a new generation of advanced full electric, urban and peri-urban BRT enhanced with novel automation and connectivity functionalities. It aims at supporting the next generation of innovative and effective public transport systems thus accelerating the transition towards zero emission road mobility across Europe. The project will demonstrate these innovative solutions in real operation in six European cities and one international city. The strong has the the ambition to carry out feasibility studies and small-scale demonstrations in South America and East Africa. Finally, the overall objective of eBRT2030 is to support sustainable urban transport by reducing cost/km/passenger by 10%, TCO by 10%, greenhouse gas and pollutant emissions by 70%, and traffic congestion by 10%, through technical solutions, business models, operational scenarios, and impact assessment processes. Finally, the solutions developed and the knowledge gained will allow the definition of a new concept of (e)BRT more sustainable, efficient and future-proof.

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

The project finalised its requirement preparation phase with a characterisation of BRT systems according to the current state-of-the-art (publication of the report 'On the Road to a Concept for BRT), an a analysis of the innovation requirements, the definition of the evaluation framework and data collection protocol. The project entered into the next phase related to the development of the innovative solutions (hardware & software) that will subsequently be implemented in the use cases and demonstrated in real operations. The project progressed significantly in the development of enabling tools to support the BRT innovations. The partners almost finalised the development of a multilevel eBRT simulation platform with with TCO & LCA optimizers to facilitate the planning the operations of an EBRT system. A new trolleybus eRBT in Prague was opened in March 2024. It deploys the longest trolleybuses in the Czech Republic connecting the Veleslavín Railway Station and Václav Havel Airport Prague increasing the transport capacity by 30%. For WP 1: It laid the foundations for the governance framework of the project. It established the governance structures and procedures for the consortium related to technical, legal, financial and contractual aspects. All the envisaged governance framework was established as well as the complementary external bodies such as the Advisory Board. For WP2: the work has been completed during the first reporting period of the project. WP2 focused on the requirements’ preparation, definitions, specifications, KPIs as well as the validation and data collection process for the project. For WP3: In the reporting period the work is underway and on track to develop a multi-level simulation, design, and planning tool to virtually verify the eBRT innovations. For WP4: 8 tools and services are being developed with completion expected by M21 with 3 developments focused on IoT devices and strategies, the definition of the eBRT2030 predictive maintenance concept, and 4 developments oriented to connected Energy Management systems aiming at vehicle energy performance optimization. Other activities are focused on developing tools to manage the Safety aspects, either from the infrastructure and the vehicle, and tools to defined eBRT2030 embarked cybersecurity concept. For WP5: some of the activities have been already implemented. This is the case for in Amsterdam, Athens, Prague, Bogota.

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

The report 'On the Road to a Concept for BRT' lays down the foundation of what is a BRT system for the project. It serves as a baseline describing the state-of-the-art of (E)BRT systems around the world, creating a benchmark to for the eBRT2030 project as its first concrete step towards the definition of a new European concept for BRT that looks at the future. It describes the high-level BRT system architecture and and it defines the system concepts for the eBRT2030 project, its benchmark and the characterisation process applied to the different elements. In the report, a first definition of BRT is provided it acknowledges how regional context plays a pivotal role in the definitions of these characteristics. For the purpose of setting a benchmark for BRTs, 3 entry parameters have been identified: Right-of-way on at least 20% of the corridor; weekdays daytime frequency of 4 buses per hour or more; Route acknowledged as core and/or flagship in the network. The scorecard is as a tool for understanding the benchmark of European BRTs and for setting the scene for further innovation and it structured under five categories of parameters (Right-of-way; Frequency and service span; Stations; Communications; Operational performance). At this point of the project, the tool provides visual result as a spider map that suggests the potential areas of improvements of the system to enhance performances or developments. To include the innovations to be developed and building towards the BRT concept for all, two new categories have been preliminarily assessed: i) zero emission fleet and smart energy; 2) connectivity and automation.