Swiss-made metro vehicles struggled with Brisbane's climate during trial

Sydney Morning Herald

6 days ago

The new Brisbane Metro vehicles were not designed for the city's climate, internal Brisbane City Council documents reveal, but City Hall is confident the issues identified during last year's trial run have been rectified.
Documents obtained by this masthead through Right to Information legislation show a mostly successful trial period for the new electric bus service, with some issues that could – and should – have been foreseen.
But despite the teething problems, council public transport chair Ryan Murphy said the trial had been a 'raging success' – an assessment borne out by internal feedback from passengers, who gave the service an average overall satisfaction rating of 4.3 score out of five.
'Brisbane Metro is a first-in-class, all-electric, bus rapid transit system, but even with the best-laid plans, technical issues can crop up when a vehicle is initially deployed,' Murphy said.
'That is part and parcel of every major public transport project in history.'
The council documents reveal the airconditioning in the 24.4-metre electric buses at times struggled to cope during the month-long trial period late last year, due to 'CC200 limitations'.
The CC200 is a power management unit that runs on-board systems, such heating, ventilation, cooling for the cabin and batteries.
'[Swiss-based bus manufacturer] HESS's base design has not taken into consideration the ambient operating conditions for Brisbane environment, i.e. passenger cooling is compromised to prioritise battery cooling even at higher ambient conditions,' the council documents show.
A council spokeswoman said HESS updated CC200 software so it could better balance the load between air conditioners and vehicle battery cooling systems.