A Dutch firm is developing a high-speed bus that could take the sting out of inter-city travel

Japan might have the Shinkansen (or "Bullet Train"), but a Netherlands firm is developing a high-speed bus that could all but match the Japanese bullet for rapidity. Dubbed the Superbus concept, the 15m long, electric-powered vehicle is said to be capable of carrying 23 passengers at speeds of up to 250km/h on a dedicated "speed track". The low-slung bus was displayed earlier this year at a transport expo in Dubai, in the United Arab Emirates, and it’s currently being trialled in the UAE capital of Abu Dhabi.

If the trials prove successful, the Superbus could ply the route between Dubai and Abu Dhabi – a 120km stretch that the bus could theoretically cover in just over 30 minutes. The Superbus is the brainchild of a design team at TU Delft University of Technology in Holland, and its designers are pitching it as the shape of things to come in sustainable transport. Rather than being laid out like a conventional bus, the novel concept houses passengers in forward and backward facing rows, and there are eight doors on each flank to make for easy ingress and egress.



According to the initial proposal, the Superbus would operate on its dedicated two-lane highway between Abu Dhabi and Dubai, and leave the "speed track" in urban areas to drop off passengers at agreed locations. Powered by lithium iron phosphate batteries, the 390kW Superbus is similar in length and width to a conventional bus, but in the quest for optimised aerodynamics it sits only as high as an average SUV – and it’s fronted by a beak that’s seemingly borrowed from a supercar. The high-tech Superbus is cloaked in a carbonfibre bodyshell, and it uses rear-wheel steering to boost low-speed manoeuvrability and high-speed stability. Its safety kit also includes advanced radar and electronic obstacle-detection systems.



It also deviates from the norm in that, rather than operating according to a fixed timetable, commuters would book online or with their mobile phone, and the bus would then pick them up and drop them off at their desired location. However, the Superbus is still at least four years away from being road-ready as its makers say there are still several packaging, safety and logistical issues to be resolved in the interim.