The Superbus Concept and Its Supertrack Infrastructure

Superbus is an innovative new concept in personal public transport, developed by the Delft University of Technology. The Superbus consists of a highly advanced vehicle that can reach speeds up to 250 km/h a special Supertrack Infrastructure and advanced IT applications for services on request, road handling and comfort and safety. The Superbus vehicle is an electrically powered, high speed luxury coach with a capacity for 20-30 passengers. It will provide point-topoint services between a choice of locations within The Netherlands and thus also may be considered as an alternative for the ‘Zuiderzeelijn’. The Superbus concept will be developed inhouse within TU Delft. It will apply state-of-the-art aerospace and formula 1 technology for lightweight structures, advanced aerodynamics, electrical propulsion and energy storage, ICT for intelligent road holding and navigation, and dynamic logistics and -planning. This paper introduces the Superbus concept as well as the concrete pavements needed for the Supertrack. The public transport, the infrastructural and environmental aspects are presented in this paper.