SPARKING A MASS TRANSIT REVOLUTION

Trains, planes and automobiles – the public and private-hire transport sectors can benefit greatly from electrification. Autovolt looks at the latest developments

- Richard Gooding

Cars have given society freedom to travel to places far and wide, and the electrification of private vehicles has allowed that to continue in a more environmentally-attuned way. But for those not lucky enough to own their own motorised vehicle, public and private-hire transport offers another way of getting about. However, until the last decade, they were far from the cleanest ways to travel. The advent of hybridisation and electrification is changing the situation, though, and has proven useful and timely with the arrival of both low and ultra-low emission zones.

The electrified public transport sector which is enjoying the greatest and quickest developments, buses are where the modern electrification mass transit story began. The London Electrobus Company first launched a battery-electric bus as long ago as 1906, but it’s only in the last decade that low-emission buses have taken off in major cities around the world, thanks to ever-tighter emission regulations and controls.