South Transdanubia Regional Innovation Agency Nonprofit Kft. (STRIA) participates in the implementation of the eBussed Interreg Europe project.   The goal of eBussed is to support the e-bus operations and promote the deployment of this low carbon public transport.

The program includes a detailed report (Status quo report) in which a survey will be given. That’s why the eBussed partners prepare an analysis on the operating bus systems. Questionnaires elaborated by the Finnish Turku University of Applied Science involve 5 different target groups in the satisfaction survey:

  • service personnel of e-buses
  • bus drivers who already have driven e-buses
  • bus drivers who have not yet driven e-buses
  • passengers who already have ridden e-buses
  • passengers who have not yet ridden e-buses

In Hungary, 254 respondents have filled in the questionnaire: 13 technicians; 42 bus drivers with e-bus driving experiences; 65 bus drivers who have not driven e-buses yet; and 134 passengers.

Source: http://www.tukebusz.hu/index.php

These results could be achieved thanks to the sound cooperation with Tüke Busz Plc, the local Public Transport Company at Pécs, who have forwarded the surveys to their employees and promoted the passenger questionnaires for the inhabitants as well.

Based on the filled questionnaires evaluation, we can make the following statements:

Technicians have many years of experience and are mostly satisfied with the received training. The internal communication and cooperation are good at the company, the communication is efficient between personnel staff and drivers. They got adequate information on the new e-buses; they have the required knowledge for maintenance. The cooperation with the bus manufacturer seems to be a bit more complicated.  They prefer to receive exact responses to specific problems from the manufacturer on malfunctions, operations, than general information, for example software update.

Drivers, who already have driven e-buses are well-experienced, 74% of them worked in this position for at least 10 years. Most drivers have a few months experience in driving e-buses (operating from August 2020), these refer to the challenges of switching from diesel to electric bus. Drivers are satisfied with the parameters of the new vehicles, with internal training. Although the charging process should be optimized and the economical driving might help with the recharging needs.

The drivers, who have not yet driven e-buses support the procurement of e-buses, as they clearly see their advantages in reducing emissions, noise. Some of them have fears to switch from diesel to e-bus, but with the appropriate provided training, they can overcome this possible fear.

Passengers are satisfied with the features of the e-buses, like lower noise level, less vibrations, comfortable seats, no commission. They are well informed by the media and they expected the changes in public transport. Some of them experienced technical problems during their travels. Unfortunately, the survey doesn’t cover this issue. On the basis of the given replies, passengers, who have not yet ridden e-buses have very similar opinions of the e-buses characteristics compared to their travel partners, who already have ridden e-buses.

Summarizing the experience so far, most participants of the survey are satisfied with e-buses, considered as a good initiative and looking forward to the sequel.

The eBussed project is co-financed by the European Regional Development Fund and Hungary.