China’s big blue bus takes passengers on test drive

China conducted a first test run of an innovative, road-straddling, 22m (72ft) long bus this week.

The blue, tunnel-like Transit Elevated Bus can carry up to 300 passengers in one carriage, over the top of traffic on the road, the state run Xinhua news agency said.

In the test in the northern city of Qinhuangdao on Tuesday, the bus moved slowly along a 300m track and stopped to allow people to get on board.

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China’s Transit Elevated Bus: The blue, tunnel-like vehicle can carry up to 300 passengers in one carriage. Photograph: Luo Xiaoguang/Xinhua/AP

In May, developers released a video showing a model of the bus and said it would be able to carry 1,200 people, with vehicles able to drive underneath it, as long as they are under two metres.

Xinhua said the bus design had attracted interest from governments in Brazil, France, India and Indonesia.

The world learned of the road-straddling bus when a model was showcased at a technology expo in Beijing in May. It generated enormous excitement in a country where traffic jams have grown as the country overtook the US to become the largest car market on earth in 2009.

– (Reuters/Guardian)