Monash University to trial new electric buses in a bid to reduce public transport emissions

Monash University is contributing to the effort to reduce carbon and particulate emissions generated from public transport, by partnering with ComfortDelGro Corporation Australia (CDC) to trial electric buses.

This trial emerges as part of the Victorian Government’s three-year Zero Emission Bus Trial, an important factor in the government’s mission to achieve zero net emissions by 2050.

Victorian Public Transport Minister Ben Carroll said the electric bus trial would be instrumental in the transition to a more sustainable public transport network.

“Creating a greener fleet is part of our Bus Plan to develop a more modern and reliable network that will attract more people to the convenience of buses,” Mr Carroll said.

CDC will install two charging stations: one at the Monash University bus interchange, to charge the electric batteries, ensuring that the buses have enough energy to complete their routes. CDC will upgrade their depot to charge buses too.

Dr Robbie Napper will lead the university interdisciplinary research project that includes the collaborative work of the Monash Mobility Design Lab in the Department of Design alongside colleagues from the Business, IT, and Engineering faculties.

The switch to electricity comes as the transport sector accounted for 25% of Victoria’s emissions. The transport sector also happens to be the fastest growing source of the state’s emissions.

Senior Lecturer in the Department of Design and Deputy Director of the Mobility Design Lab Dr Robbie Napper explained that changing from unsustainable energy sources, like burning diesel, to creating electricity with renewables was essential for lowering emissions.

“Mobility and transport are an enabling part of our economy, part of how we live, it's very difficult for us to change a lot of behaviours around transport. “

“So, we need to look at other ways of reducing emissions and one of the ways to do that is to change where we get our energy from,” Dr Robbie Napper explained.

The buses will utilise batteries that can be recharged throughout the day and overnight using charging stations.

“We're doing a trial on urban buses, where and when they can be recharged... in some ways it’s just like you're plugging in your phone,” Dr Napper said.

How is Monash contributing to the trial?

Monash University is primarily contributing to the Zero Emission Bus Trial in two different capacities.

The first way is operationally. Monash is a big trip generator, generating a lot of trips as students and staff commute to and from campus. The electric bus trial will take place along the 601 Huntingdale – Monash University route, which operates solely for Monash students and staff.

Additionally, Monash, in its capacity as a research organisation, will be working alongside CDC and other contributing organisations, to run a living lab.

“A living lab tries to combine the best parts of laboratory research with real world research,” Dr Napper explained.

“The living part of the Living Lab is that these buses are going to have passengers on them from day one. They are real buses in revenue service, doing what buses are meant to do.

“We're not driving them around a test track.”

The living lab will not only focus on trialling the Electric Bus technology, but rather the logistics of operating the battery powered vehicles along busy bus routes.

“We are pretty certain that battery electric buses are going to be 'the thing', what we're trialling instead is 'how is it done?',” Dr Napper said.

“We're watching, we're learning and we're analysing what's going on and we're trying to figure out the best ways to operate the buses.”

The Zero Emission Bus Living Lab is predicted to begin in November of 2022 and will run for three years.