SBS Transit / NTU / THU : Higer KLQ6129GQH2 Fuel Cell Bus (RD6066L)

The Higer KLQ6129GQH2 Fuel Cell Bus was created to ferry athletes and officials around the Youth Olympics Village which was located at Yunnan Garden Campus in the Nanyang Technological University in August 2010.

According to phsyorg.org : "The hybrid fuel cell-battery bus is a joint research project by Nanyang Technological University (NTU) and China's Tsinghua University (THU) and marks another major step forward in NTU's sustainability research and development."

The bus is zero emission, using a hybrid fuel cell that uses hydrogen and oxygen to transform to electricity, which is stored on in the battery and used to power the bus. It is also low entry, wheelchair accessible bus.

The Higer Fuel Cell Bus @ Wee Kim Wee School of Communications and Information.

The bus was constructed and tested in Suzhou.

On the road, probably under test drive in China. Photo from sgforums user ssvenisu

In front of Higer's company building in China. Photo from sgforums user ssvenisu

In front of Higer's company building in China. Photo from sgforums user ssvenisu

With the Chinese press in Higer's factory. Photo from sgforums user ssvenisu

The "engine" of the bus. Photo from sgforums user ssvenisu

 After arrival to Singapore, it was under trial run, and was photographed by bigbus weblog's blogger.

Seen here driven around NTU with trade plate and SBS Transit livery minus the logo. Photo by bigbus

It was registered as RD6066L (RD standing for Research & Development) in July 2010, was launched with the Sunlong hybrids. It adorned its current blue advertisment "Zer0 Emission, Low noise, Emits Clean Water".

As the Higer departs Boon Lay Interchange. Photo by bigbus.

It was later deployed to do Youth Olympic Games (YOG) internal shuttle, under the plate YOG3419.

On driver familiarisation runs and with a full body YOG livery, YOG3418 making its rounds. Photo by bigbus.

And after the YOG, the bus was parked for a long time in its holding area in NTU.

In the holding area within NTU, seen with ezlink card readers and revenue service equipments.

Which it seems to remain inside until it was moved out to another spot within NTU from 17th Nov 2011 onwards.

Rough translation: To prevent leafs from clogging up and collecting water, please cover up the roof of the bus as soon as possible. Dated 2011.11.17 by THU.

On to the actual vehicle itself:

The front of the bus with citybus styling, though the top of the bus looks out of place with a higher roof. .

RD6066L, with its badging  model number KLQ6128GQH2.

The roof of the Higer Fuel Cell vehicle, containing the airconditioning pod and fuel cell equipment. The advantages of this bus is shown in this advertisment in blue and green, together with the NTU and THU university logo..

The side EDS of the bus in close up.

The right side of the bus. The black portion under the driver's window adds a nice touch to the design of the bus.

The proud partners : SBS Transit, Land Transport Authority, Higer, and Sinohytec.

GreenLite. There is a rear camera mounted on the roof to aid the driver, and a long rear EDS is installed.

The rear enigne cover, with the Higer and its mandarin character branding covered by the advertisment livery.

*The bus interior is photographed from the outside of the bus through the windows.

The interior of the bus.

The interior colour scheme (thankfully) does not follow the entirely brown theme of the Scania K230UB, instead more of a lighter colour scheme with purple grab poles and yellow door frames. Revenue equipments had been removed.

The seats are by Vogelsitze, with the seating arrangement following standard layout of SBS Transit's low entry buses (K230UB Euro V). With one right wheelarch seat and 2 pairs of 5 side facing priority seats, one wheelchair bay, and standard two abreast seating for the rear half of the bus.

The dashboard of the Higer

The driver's cabin, featuring a very colourful seat for the bus captain. The wheelarch seat is right behind the driver's cabin.

HIGER LCD  TV on the front half of the bus, which is said to show the performance, battery level etc.

The left side of low floor interior, featuring 5 priority seats.

The right side of the bus also feature 5 priority seats. Equipments for the bus is seen stacked here.

Equipment is placed at the wheelchair bay.

Yellow plug doors

Another HIGER LCD TV placed for the rear half of the bus. The airconditioning filter cover is similar to the ones used on the Euro V K230UB.

The low entry configuration, rear half of the seats.

Additional photos courtesy of Frankie Wong, photographed when the bus was on service during the Youth Olympic Games.

Aircon ductings. Photo by Frankie Wong

View from rear to front. Photo by Frankie Wong.

Another view. Photo by Frankie Wong.

The front cabin area of the bus. Photo by Frankie Wong.

As of 3rd Nov 2011, the bus is undergoing conversion to be a fully electric vehicle

The newspaper article on Straits Times, Home Section, B11

The future for hybrid and electric buses. Looking forward to it =)

For more information on the Higer Fuel Cell bus, do check out the links below:
http://www.physorg.com/wire-news/36844408/more-partnerships-in-china.html
http://www.cses.eee.ntu.edu.sg/Activities/Pages/Cell%20Bus.aspx

http://www.chinabuses.org/news/2010/0602/article_3288.html

SBS Transit : Volvo B9TL Wright Eclipse Gemini 2 (Batch 3)

SBS Transit's Wright Eclipse Gemini 2 bodied Volvo B9TL have two distinct batches, with the only difference being the first batch of 150 buses having ZF EcoLife 6AP 1410B transmission, and registered between SBS7500D - SBS7686B (excluding regos ending with 4). The second batch however differs in it having Voith DIWA 864.5 transmission, though the specifications remain the same as the first batch. They are currently registered in 77XX series.

However, a third batch made a debut on 23rd Nov 2011, which are registered under SBS3XXX series.

SBS3000G, the first of the 3XXX series Wright B9TL

Externally, SBS3XXX series Wright B9TLs looks very similar to the first two batches, however they are equipped with LECIP electronic destination signages (EDS) instead of Hanover signages. Though they are equipped with the Voith DIWA transmission used in the batch 2 Wrights.

Internally, it is a different story.

100% low floor!

The lower deck is now configured to be 100% fully low floor, utiliing the B9TL's potential as a full low floor double decker. The previous two batches of Wright B9TLs were configured to be low entry. The upper deck remains the same configuration.

The first two batch had low entry configuration, with a step leading to the seats pictured here.

The low floor configuration zero step configuration.

In the thid batch, it is largely similar in layout, however two side facing seats from each side row are now configured to be foward facing seats. They are also redesignated as priority seats.

Both pair of seats (top and bottom) are mounted on the "floor" where the previous two batches , would be the place side facing seat passengers would place their feets on.

There are also minor specifications differences in this third batch.

The first aid kit is originally housed in the Hanover EDS housing in the first two batch.

But in the third batch, it is moved to the front of the bus.

While the side and rear EDS housing is now bigger to accomodate the size of the LEICP signages.

The bigger side EDS housing.

The door closing sign is now angled for better visibility. In the previous 2 batches, the sign is placed as is, and facing downwards to the floor, making it hard to see the door closing lights when the door closes.

The move to configure this batch of Wright B9TL to 100% low floor is an improvement over the previous two batches in terms of accessibility, without needing to climb two steps in order to reach the seats, while some small modifications to the specifications such as the door closing sign and the first aid kit relocated to be more prominent at the front of the bus is a welcome change.