Fuel Cell Bus Club

The Fuel Cell Bus Club comprises the participants of the projects CUTE, ECTOS and STEP ([1]). They currently operate the largest fleet of fuel cell buses in the world, 33 buses, as part of a two-year Citaro hydrogen fuel cell bus trial.

There are three buses each in 11 cities: Amsterdam, Barcelona, Hamburg, London, Luxembourg, Madrid, Perth, Porto, Reykjavik, Stockholm and Stuttgart.

Projects

All information is shared between CUTE, ECTOS and STEP.

CUTE

CUTE stands for Clean Urban Transport for Europe. This European Union initiative is responsible for the fuel cell buses in 9 of the above-mentioned cities.

ECTOS

ECTOS stands for Ecological City Transport System. Icelandic New Energy is responsible for this project, the aim of which is to demonstrate "state-of-the-art" hydrogen technology by running part of the public transport system with fuel cell buses in Reykjavik, Iceland.

STEP

STEP stands for Sustainable Transport Energy for Perth. This initiative of the Government of Western Australia's Department of Planning and Infrastructure, being run by Path Transit (mostly) through Transperth is responsible for the fuel cell buses in Perth, Western Australia.

STEP is also sharing information with other fuel cell bus projects.

The fuel cell buses began service in Perth on September 27, 2004.

Partners

The buses were manufactured by DaimlerChrysler, the manufacturer of Mercedes-Benz vehicles, and use fuel cell engines manufactured by Ballard Power Systems. A number of the cities are receiving their hydrogen from BP. The trial is being independently evaluated, mostly by Murdoch University.

The Perth trial has received 2.5 million dollars funding from the Department of the Environment and Heritage and the Australian Greenhouse Office.

The Perth trial has been endorsed by the United Nations Environment Programme.

Projects

CUTE

ECTOS

STEP

Partners

See Also