More and more cities worldwide opt for low-floor buses and against platforms.

Lower costs for infrastructure compensate the additional expenses for more advanced buses. Constructional measures are faster, and the system is more flexible in terms of modifications and extensions.

Metropolises like Beijing are growing fast. Traffic jams and smog are the order of the day. For two years now, traffic planners in Beijing have therefore been using Bus Rapid Transit, abbreviated BRT – a traffic concept based on low-floor buses equipped with ZF technology. The benefits: shorter implementation times, less space requirements at bus stops, more flexibility. And often, this goes hand in hand with lower total costs – compared to systems with platform bus stops. Benefits which have meanwhile also convinced many other cities worldwide – not only in China. Examples are: Istanbul, Teheran, Seoul, Santiago, Barquisimeto, Sao Paulo.

Ground-breaking in China was done in Beijing. In 2006, it was the first city to put a BRT bus line into service. Since then, approximately ten more cities have joined in, e.g. Hangzhou. The BRT concept with low-floor buses is implemented consistently everywhere: extra bus lanes, high frequencies, and short dwell times at the bus stops. 90 state-of-the-art low-floor articulate buses are running on the roughly 16km long North-South line in Beijing. They transport up to 160,000 passengers to their destination per day and 8,000 per hour and direction.

The use of low-floor buses enables – as the name already suggests – level access for getting on and off the bus, also known as one-level boarding. The passengers can move through the bus quickly via the central corridor which is also free from platforms and steps. Thus, in Beijing, it is possible to achieve dwell times at bus stops of only approx. 16 seconds. In combination with extra bus lanes on the roads, the BRT line can serve the 17 bus stops in a 3-minute cycle, during the rush hour even in a 50-second interval.

Only 25 months' planning including all construction measures and investment costs of only 4.6 million dollars per kilometer were required for line operation in China's capital. The time effort and expenses were rather low, mainly because it was not necessary to plan and build space-intensive platform bus stops.

ZF provides bus manufacturers worldwide with the technology for these low-floor buses: Mercedes-Benz, Setra, MAN, Neoplan, Scania, Volvo, and many others are banking on ZF's low-floor axle systems, just like King Long, Dongfeng, Huanghai, and Yutong. In addition to the RL 85 A front axle, also the AV 132 and AVN 132 portal axles, as well as the RL 75 EC low-floor independent wheel suspension are made by ZF. These ZF products not only allow for low-floor technology but also ensure better maneuverability and handling, more driving and ride comfort, as well as increased safety. When combined with the automatic 6-speed transmission Ecomat 4, fuel consumption and emissions can be considerably reduced.

Anyway, Beijing's traffic planners are convinced of the BRT concept with low-floor buses. This very year and in time for the Olympic Games two additional BRT lines will be put into service - also with low-floor buses. This shows that the low-floor concept is heading in the right direction.