Frost's radical Freight*Bus

Multi-disciplined design specialist, Hugh Frost's radical urban transport proposal, called On-Route, is designed to tackle the two biggest problems caused by city-centre transport today; congestion and pollution.

Freight*BUS is an innovative new design that combines a passenger-carrying bus with that of freight haulage with the minimum of disruption to either service. It can be reconfigured in seconds by the conductor or driver to carry freight and passengers. Furthermore, passenger space and freight space can be easily adjusted to match demand.

Frost's proposal was submitted to Transport for London (TfL)'s 'A New Bus for London' competition, which Mayor of London Boris Johnson launched earlier this year. Although the Freight*BUS was not the final winner of the competition, Hugh Frost, designer and concept originator of the On-Route system and the Freight*BUS still wishes to take his idea to the next level and is now looking for stakeholders to help him do this.

These could be in the form of bus or commercial vehicle manufacturers who are interested in developing the Freight*BUS from conceptual state into a full-blown prototype; a municipality which would consider trialling the On-Route system, or stakeholder investors, such as venture capitalists that specialise in environmental transportation solutions.

"Taking London as an example, the most optimistic proposals put the average occupancy of its buses at 25%. However, our calculations show that for around four hours a day, their utilisation drops to as low as 20%," Frost says. "Despite this, city authorities are tasked with increasing the numbers of vehicles, routes and service frequency to supposedly reduce congestion and improve services. My idea is to put our cities' buses to good use by using them to provide an alternative city freight system at times of low passenger capacity utilisation.

This could reduce the numbers of freight vehicles on city roads by as much as 30%. By using the buses to carry freight in the evening and overnight, the utilisation of these vehicles would be maximised, offering maximum return on investment (ROI) and substantially increased revenue from the vehicles. However, in order to fulfil this dual role, the entire concept of buses, as we know them today, needs to be revisualised."

With this in the mind, the Freight*Bus has been designed to allow varying combinations of passenger and freight space to match demand. In full passenger configuration, it provides seating for up to 90 passengers - that's 43 more than the bendy-bus and standing room for a further 40 passengers. With standing room only on the lower deck, it could accommodate 150 people with 52 seated. Meanwhile, in its full freight configuration the Freight*BUS is designed to accommodate 35 freight pods (equivalent to 35 europallets).

For more details of the On-Route and Freight*BUS concept, visit: www.onroutebus.co.uk