GRT Olympic Team Blog

I had a very interesting passenger on my bus on Sunday. Jens Schiffner was one of the engineers from Ballard Power Systems, the maker of the fuel cells that power our Hydrogen buses. This young man, with a German accent, introduced himself as an engineer with Ballard. They were out interviewing drivers to find out what they think about the Fuel Cell buses. He actually got on my bus and rode around for half an hour and really picked my brain. The fact that they actually went out of their way to get our input really impressed me.

First I had lots of questions. It turns out that the Hydrogen buses are designed to have 8 high pressure tanks on the roof for the liquid hydrogen. But due to weight restrictions, they now have six tanks. This gives them about 350 kilometres range, when they could do 500 km with all eight tanks. The Planning department actually only has them on the road for about eight hours, which only uses 40% of the fuel. I suggested they put a more prominent fuel gauge on the buses and run them for 12 hours or so.

Hydrogen Tips and Tricks:

To find the fuel level:

1. Press the left button on the odometer three times until Hrs is displayed. This is the hours of operation.
2. Press and hold the start button for 3 seconds until the display changes to a three digit number that is actually the percentage fuel remaining. For example when it displays 72.0 hrs, it actually means there is 72% of the fuel remaining. The display will revert to the hours display in 10 seconds.

My experience was 62% fuel remaining when I returned to the garage at 1:07 pm. Then the next day I did some overtime for another hour and still had 52% left. So why not run them longer? And, for that matter, why not put the two extra tanks back on and leave them out all day? A diesel bus can run at least 20 hours per day, so that must be the goal in terms of range for the hydrogen buses.

Leave master switch on night run

                In order to avoid computer glitches, select night run on the master switch when the bus is first turned on in the morning, and leave it there. Apparently, changing from night run later in the day run can create a computer glitch. I realize this is a no-brainer, as having the full headlight package on at all times is the rule.

Do not kneel with crush load.

                When you have an extremely heavy passenger load, where people are standing right to the front of the bus, do not attempt to kneel the bus. I tried this once, and the bus only came partway back up.

Do not open doors until completely stopped.

                Again, this should be obvious, but apparently some people activate the back door early in order to use the interlock brake to help them stop. Obviously, this is completely inappropriate, and will often cause a system check light to come on.

One of the nicest things on the hydrogen buses is the fact that there is no transmission on these buses. There is only an electric motor that drives and brakes the bus. Unlike most diesel buses where a completely smooth acceleration is almost impossible, it is common on the Fuel Cell buses. It sure is nice getting compliments from the passengers on how smooth the ride is. The stopping is even smoother as you use the retarder to do 90% of your braking. The trick is getting used to the fact that backing off the throttle alone activates the retarder. I’ve been trained for decades to step on the brake to slow down, and my foot keeps wanting to move over to the brake, when all I have to do is come off the throttle. You only touch the brakes under 10 km/hr when a complete stop is required.

He then pressed me to tell him about any problems I may have experienced. I’ve actually never had a fuel cell bus shut down on me, so all my concerns were rather minor. Now, don’t get me wrong, I love these hydrogen buses. In fact, I think most of the drivers here are warming up to them. But here are some issues I related to him, in order of priority:

• The driver’s heat first thing in the morning is nonexistent. If the outside temperature is below zero, figure on wearing your coat for the first hour of work. I told him that until this problem is fixed, drivers would never endorse these types of vehicles.
• The right-hand mirror is not heated or remote controlled. The fact that they did not choose the heated mirror option on a $2.2 million bus is mind boggling. And not having a remote control for adjustment on the right-hand side just means that many of our shorter drivers will end up driving without properly adjusting their mirrors. Both of these issues are a safety hazards in my opinion.
• There is no “power plant running” indicator on the display. The unique thing about these buses is that you cannot hear the engine start when you press and hold the starter button. On a diesel bus, you hold down the starter until you hear the engine catch. On these buses, the only indication is that the battery light disappears. So how long are you supposed to hold the starter button down? Having a green check mark or some other indicator that your fuel cell is now operating, would be helpful.
• Put the fuel gauge right up front, rather than hiding it in the odometer display. If we knew exactly how much fuel was remaining, the company would feel more confident about running it on the road for longer hours. Let’s face it, the more hours the hydrogen buses are used, the less diesel we will have to burn.
• Destination sign controls should be at least a foot lower on the overhead display. I’m often setting off the seat alarm when I’m stretching up to change the destination sign. Simply move it to just above the blinds, like on the NOVA buses, and we will all be happy.
• The two-way radio does not have a microphone clip. Again, how they could miss this five dollar option on a state-of-the-art bus is rather amusing. For three weeks now the radio microphone has been dangling from the ceiling, banging back and forth on the dashboard.
• The two-way radio is not equipped with Channel 2, which is the main channel.

 

• Now we get into the minor stuff. There is no coffee cup holder in the hydrogen buses.
• Like most of the New Flyer series, there is no floor space beside the driver where you can set your lunch bag.
• The Next Stop light on the dash is way too bright. We need a resister installed.
• The driver’s seat could use arm rests.

In summary, these fuel cell buses are the future of transit. They are operational today here at Whistler Transit as a demonstration to the world that Hydrogen Technology is viable now. Ballard continues to tweak them, and is using driver input to accelerate this process. The question now is if New Flyer and BC Transit is listening to driver input as well. For my part, it has been a huge privilege to have been able to operate them.

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This entry was posted on Wednesday, February 24th, 2010 at 3:58 pm and is filed under John A McDonald. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.