[en] The Andalusian sector of regular public passenger transport of general use, has beentraditionally characterized by being configured by a wide variety of operators of small andmedium-scale, where the concession contracts were the only and main economic activity.Over time, new trends have appeared on the market that have led to the evolution of thesector to other models. On the one hand, transformation of the business owner tocorporations, and secondly the penetration of large multinational companies which haveentered the sector through the acquisition and, on many occasions, absorbing existingconcession companies.This paper analyzes the changes experienced in the concession contracts related to theirchange of ownership and its impact on the current structure industry. The analysis showsan overview of the regular public transport system travelers utility road in Andalusia.The results are interesting for the planning and design of new concession contracts,extension approach of the current contracts and general optimization of the system forpromotion of a sustainable transport, which satisfies needs of users, respecting the rule offree market.In short, this paper aims to provide a deeper knowledge of the sector, from the point ofview of the operating companies that intergrates it, showing the evolution in existingbusiness structures. (Author)

[en] Comfort on board plays an essential role in the levels of satisfaction of a bus service perceived by passengers. The aim of this paper is to propose a measure of comfort based on two kinds of data: perceptions of passengers (subjective data) and accelerations of bus (objective data). For the collection of subjective data a questionnaire was addressed to a sample of university students, while a smartphone, equipped with GPS device and 3-axis accelerometer, was used to record the accelerations. Based on the recorded parameters, we determined the thresholds of the acceleration values beyond which the level of comfort cannot be considered as good.. (Author)

[en] 'Full text:' The paper presents the latest fuel cell technology progress in China and its application in field of transportation. The units who are engaged in fuel cell technology and fuel cell products will be introduced and their applications in light fuel cell vehicles and fuel cell cars as well as fuel cell buses will be included. (author)

[en] In this paper the GO method is used for analyzing the reliability of NPP bus system arrangement. Focusing on the typical one and a half breakers bus system, the detailed GO chart of typical work/failure(maintenance) two or three-state-component system is given, and the qualitative and quantitative analysis is conducted. Compared with the FTA results,the correctness and advantage of the GO methodology is verified. (authors)

[en] The Power Electronics and Electric Machinery Research Center (PEEMRC) of Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) has for many years been developing technologies for power converters for motor drives and many other applications. Some of the research goals are to improve efficiency and reduce audible and electromagnetic interference noise generation for inverters and the driven loads. The converters are being required to produce more power with reduced weight and volume, which requires improvements in heat removal from the electronics, as well as improved circuit designs that have fewer electrical losses. PEEMRC has recently developed and patented a soft-switching inverter topology called an Auxiliary Resonant Tank (ART), and this design has been tested and proven at ORNL using a 10-kW laboratory prototype. The objective of this project was to develop, test, and install the ART inverter technology in an electric transit bus with the final goal of evaluating performance of the ORNL inverter under field conditions in a vehicle. A scaled-up inverter with the capacity to drive a 22-e bus was built based on the 10-kW ORNL laboratory prototype ART soft-switching inverter. Most (if not all) commercially available inverters for traction drive and other applications use hard-switching inverters. A Cooperative Research and Development Agreement was established with the Chattanooga Area Regional Transit Authority (CARTA), the Electric Transit Vehicle Institute (ETVI), and Advanced Vehicle Systems (AVS), all of Chattanooga, along with ORNL. CARTA, which maintains and operates the public transit system in Chattanooga, provided an area for testing the vehicle alongside other similar vehicles in the normal operating environment. ETVI offers capabilities in standardized testing and reporting and also provides exposure in the electric transit vehicle arena for ORNL's technologies. The third Chattanooga partner, (AVS) manufactures all-electric and hybrid electric transit buses using inverter drive systems from several manufacturers. AVS provided help in field installation, and parts for laboratory testing. A 100-kW field-ready unit was developed, tested in an ORNL laboratory, and installed and successfully operated in a CARTA bus in Chattanooga. The tests on the vehicle were performed at a CARTA maintenance facility and at a l-mile test track in Chattanooga managed by CARTA

[en] A method of estimating a power system's electromechanical mode shape and coherence from time synchronized phasor measurements is presented. The approach uses a parametric estimate of the transfer function (TF) between signals at different buses throughout the power system. The relationship between the TF and mode shape and coherence is reviewed. A non-causal autoregressive exogenous (ARX) model is used in a least squares (LS) minimization to estimate the TF parameters and to estimate the magnitude squared coherence function. The method is applied to both a simulated system and measured data from the western North American power system and is compared to the traditional Welch periodogram averaging approach.

[en] The efficiency of each drives is dependent on many factors. Hybrid drives and specially the drives of urban public transport may be affected by other factors given by transport infrastructure or operational conditions. These factors condition the suitable configuration of the individual elements of hybrid drive and the establishment of good control strategy of such drive. The study of influencing factors of the control strategy is the aim of this paper. (full text)

[en] The purpose of this working session is about the operations in a control system incident. The participants can apply the knowledge acquired in a bus accident exercise where the passengers are in contamination risk by dangerous material. They have to identify the incident commander, the type of response required, the risks of the emergency, the requirements for transporting the victims to the hospital and the actors involved in a radiological emergency

[en] Car manufacturers make extensive use of design to enhance their product and make it more desirable than that of their competitors. After more than sixty years of systematic use of design, the private car is the transport mode of our modern industrialised society, its cult symbol and its destruction. The bus could be a solution to our traffic problems, but while the design quality of the car has been steadily rising, that of the bus, at best, has been stagnant. Design is definitely a solution to improve the appeal of the bus, but the current privatisation and cost cutting exercises do not create any space for the required improvement of comfort and design quality. Only the transport authorities can redress this situation by demanding higher standards and even taking the necessary initiatives in organising projects which demonstrate the required standards. (author)

[en] The Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory (INEEL) is currently negotiating a collaborative effort with Pacific Gas and Electric (PG and E) that will advance the use of liquefied natural gas (LNG) as a vehicle fuel. We plan to develop and demonstrate a small-scale methane liquefaction plant (production of 5,000 to 10,000 gallons per day) and a low-cost ($150,000) LNG refueling station to supply fuel to LNG-powered transit buses and other heavy-duty vehicles. INEEL will perform the research and development work. PG and E will deploy the new facilities commercially in two demonstration projects, one in northern California, and one in southern California