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Passenger operation in Saudi Arabia: Twelve trolleybuses from Viseon and Vossloh Kiepe have been put into operation in Riyadh

Posted: 2 May 2013 | Vossloh Kiepe | No comments yet

Twelve innovative trolleybuses manufactured…

Twelve innovative trolleybuses manufactured by Vision now take up passenger operation on the campus of the King Saud University in Riyadh. These buses are equipped with state-of-the-art traction equipment from Vossloh Kiepe, the Düsseldorf specialist in this field.

Riad Trolleybus

The new trolleybuses are integrated into the campus little by little and are used by the students and the personnel of the university. The vehicles are operated in a five minute cycle after a timetable.

Female passengers and children are not allowed to board the buses together with the male passengers. The strict gender segregation takes place in the fully air conditioned station buildings before boarding. The male drivers are also separated from the passenger compartment by a fixed wall.

The operation of the complete vehicle series was tested without passengers in the weeks before. Staff was recruited and trained especially for this operation. The test operation was coordinated with the building activity on the campus, within the scope of which a new transport system has been set up within a twelve square kilometre big area.

The maintenance of the modern vehicles mainly consisted in the regular cleaning of all air filters. The fine sand dust still makes high demands on the maintenance and the technical condition of the filter systems.

It has not been possible to carry out tests under extreme climatic conditions yet as it is the wrong time of the year for such tests. But in the months to come the temperatures are going to rise to about 50 °C in Riyadh, which means that the air conditioning system has to be very powerful and will have a high demand for energy. Therefore, the requirements for cooling of the electronic equipment fitted on the roof of the vehicles are very high and, therefore, e.g. energy recuperated during braking is mainly made available to the air conditioning system.

Excess braking energy is only recuperated to the overhead contact line system to supply the other vehicles in the line section with power if the air conditioning system does not need all the energy.

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