Achieving Cleaner Commutes
Our burgeoning population is accompanied by an increasingly staggering number of motor vehicles on the roads. We look at the viability of some greener modes of land transport Asia has tried to adopt.
Our burgeoning population is accompanied by an increasingly staggering number of motor vehicles on the roads. We look at the viability of some greener modes of land transport Asia has tried to adopt.
Personal Rapid Transit (PRT)
Much like a miniature version of the mass rapid transit system, a personal rapid transit system takes passengers to their destination in electric podcars that usually sit two to eight people on tracks (known as guide ways). However, the emission-free vehicles transport a user to anywhere within the network directly without making any stops like a taxi and uses one third of the energy of a traditional car. PRT systems have a much higher passenger-km-per-hour-per-direction (PkmPhPd) capacity and it costs three to five time less to build the same length of PRT network as compared to an MRT network. First implemented in West Virginia University in 1975, the efficiency and sustainability of this mode of transport has prompted attempts to adopt it in the subsequent decades. Only two PRT systems are in operation in the world: a 13-vehicle system that began operations in UAE’s Masdar City in 2010 and a 21-vehicle system that began operations in London’s Heathrow Airport Terminal 5 in 2011. In 2013, a 5.3 km long 40-vehicle PRT system was expected to run in Suncheon, South Korea but its launch has been delayed despite test trials. In the same year, India announced plans to build a PRT system in Amritsar but the project never made it beyond the stone-laying ceremony and now stands shelved because of various human challenges.
Electric Cars
Far from being a recent invention, electric cars have gone through decades of modification. Their popularity was revived in the early 2000s when Japanese car manufacturer Toyota launched the world’s first mass-produced hybrid elctric vehicle, Prius, worldwide against the backdrop of growing environmental concerns. Since then, more Asian car manufacturers, mostly in Japan, South Korea and China, have started developing their own versions of electric vehicles. On a national level, countries are also encouraging this mode of transport on a larger scale. In 2017, the Indian government announced that it would ban gas and diesel cars and Singapore started using Asia’s first electric car-sharing service, Blue SG, that owns a fleet of 80 cars. The UAE and Dubai government had also rolled out incentives like toll waivers, and free public charging to promote the use of electric cars.
The term ‘maglev’ is an abbrieviation of ‘magnetic levitation’ and maglev trains rely on very strong magnets to run. They can travel at speeds much higher than the maximum operating speed of any high-speed train (about 300km/h). The Shanghai maglev which began operations in 2004 — the only commercial maglev train in the world — runs at 431km/h and takes one from Shanghai Pudong International Airport to the Longyang metro station on the outskirts of Shanghai in just over seven minutes. Though it is hailed as a cheap and efficient mode of transport, few plans to implement maglev systems have actually materialised. Construction of a 175km maglev line that connects Shanghai to Hangzhou was approved in March 2006 but called of due to public objection and rising project costs. However, Japanese rail operator JR Central is continuing with the development of the Chuo Shinkansen maglev line between Tokyo and Osaka, the first part (Tokyo to Nagoya) of which could begin services by 2025.
Hydrogen Fuel Cell Bus
In March 2018, Tata Motors unveiled India’s first hydrogen fuel cell bus, Tata Starbus, developed jointly with the Indian Space Research Organisation. Partly funded by the nation’s Department of Science & Industrial Research, Ministry for Science & Technology and the Ministry for New and Renewable Energy, the zero-emission bus only produces water and heat as byproducts and was fuelled at the country’s first hydrogen dispensing facility at the R&D Centre of Indian Oil. The bus that sits 30 passengers and has a maximum speed of about 70km per hour has been trialled in New Delhi but it is unknown when it will be in use.