Transperth has announced that it will be trialling a new environmentally-friendly hybrid vehicle as a part of the CAT bus fleet. The state-of-the-art diesel-electric hybrid was developed for Transperth following a visit to the Volvo factory in Sweden by Transport Minister Troy Buswell.
According to a press release, the one-year trial of the new technology will start in March, after some final fit-out work is completed. Buses will be running on the Perth CAT routes and evaluated against Volvo diesels and Mercedes CNG (compressed natural gas) buses.
At the end of the trial, the three models will be independently assessed and a decision made on which type of bus will be selected to replace the current CAT fleet. The Minister said the hybrid trial represented a $1million commitment by the State Government – about $600,000 of which is the cost of the new bus – and keeps Western Australia at the forefront of the Australian transport industry and the need to embrace greener technology.