Resumen
In spite of genuine innovations in the field of bus manufacturing over the recent years, user acceptance of bus transport has not duly changed. Moreover, the economic situation today calls for further research development to make bus systems more attractive for passengers and, at the same time, more efficient and economical to operate. The European Bus System of the Future 2, coordinated by UITP, combines the efforts of 42 partners to tackle this challenge. The project is committed to complete the development and testing in real operational scenarios of a set of technological solutions to evaluate to which extent such innovations can contribute to improving the attractiveness and the efficiency of bus systems mostly in terms of operational costs and energy consumption. Demonstrations in real service in 12 cities address the following key areas for innovations: energy strategy and auxiliaries, green driver assistance systems, IT standards introduction in existing fleet, vehicle design (capacity, accessibility, and modularity), intelligent garage and predictive maintenance, interface between the bus and urban infrastructure. Key solutions that still require more steps for a wide acceptance in the market are also evaluated in the project through the use of prototypes and simulation tools. The paper presents the rationale of the project as well as its positioning and ambition with respect to the state-of-the-art scenario. It also describes the methodology developed to achieve the EBSF_2 mission and the scenarios and technological innovations addressed by the Gothenburg test site as an example of the approach implemented in all the demonstrations.