Clean Busses for Public Transport - SenterNovem, The Netherlands

Summary
In large parts of Europe, the public transport services are operated under concessions from local and regional authorities. Concessions are allowed after a competitive tendering procedure in which the authorities lay down the demands the operators should meet. Novem has developed a tool (STEPUP - Strategic Tool for Ecological Public Transport) to stimulate public transport authorities - and through them the operators - to consciously assess the energy and environmental aspects of the service and plan for gradual improvements. The tool makes a balance sheet of extra costs for investment in cleaner and alternative fuel options for buses, on the one hand, and ecological benefits, on the other, in order to support transport authorities in decision-making. Novem has applied the tool in several cases in the Netherlands since 2000. The objective of the OPET project was to update, improve and disseminate the tool for use by, in principle, all OPETs. The improved STEPUP was made available to the other participating OPETs (STEM, Motiva and VTC/VITO), who were trained in applying the tool and disseminated information about the tool to local authorities and public transport companies in their countries. STEPUP is available, free of charge, to all OPETs and other organisations.

End-user area	Transport and mobility
Target audience	Local and regional authorities Transport companies
Technical scope	Energy efficiency

Context
Market introduction of clean technologies for public transport buses poses a threefold challenge:

• Information: the stakeholders (authorities, transport providers, industry) need to know about the existence and performance of these technologies. Performance is related to ecological benefits and financial costs;
• Evaluation: the stakeholders need to be assisted in comparing the different options and weighing up the environmental benefits against the added costs of the clean alternatives;
• Timing: the decision-makers need support at the right moment in the decision process.

Local decision-making in favour of adoption of new energy technologies in public transport is complicated, as in large parts of Europe the services are (about to be) operated under concessions from local and regional authorities. Concessions are allowed after a competitive tendering procedure, in which the authorities lay down the demands the operators should meet. In this procedure, public transport operators compete on quality and costs among others, while energy and environmental aspects are often lacking. In order to integrate energy technologies in public transport, it is essential that energy and environmental concerns are made integral part of the tendering process.

Objectives
Novem (Senter Novem since 1 May 2004) has developed a tool to achieve this and has tested it in some cases in the Netherlands since 2000 (Haarlem, Utrecht, Tilburg). The aim is to stimulate public transport authorities - and through them the operators - to consciously assess the energy and environmental aspects of the service and plan for gradual improvements. The tool makes a balance sheet of extra costs for investment in cleaner and alternative fuel options for buses on the one hand, and ecological benefits on the other, in order to support transport authorities in decision-making especially during the process of competitive tendering. The tool (STEPUP - Strategic Tool for Ecological Public Transport) can be used to:

• Determine the feasible energy and environmental objectives in the request for procurement by comparing the costs and benefits of different compositions of the bus fleet;
• Evaluate the offers from different public transport companies by comparing the costs and benefits of different offers made;
• Monitor the (ecological) performance of the public transport companies.

In each case, the costs are the added financial costs for standard size and minibuses, and the benefits are reduced emissions of NOx, PM, CO2 as well as the emissions in five exemplary streets.

The tool is not only useful for concession granters but also for transport companies, which can use it as part of their fleet management strategy.

llustration: Output of STEPUP: saved emissions versus added costs:
(Fictive example of comparing four fleet compositions)



Illustration: screenshot from STEPUP, category minibuses:

Process
The project involved the following activities:

• Novem organised a seminar on competitive tendering in public transport, attended by eight OPETs. The OPETs were trained in supporting the authorities in this process by applying the STEPUP tool. The tool was then updated and improved, adding, for example, several bio-fuel options (bio-ethanol, bio-diesel, bio-gas) to the diesel bus, diesel bus with soot filter, LPG bus, and natural gas bus options that were already included. A handbook was written for authorities who administer and manage the public procurement process.
• The project partners organised seminars and presentations for authorities who administer and manage the public procurement process in their respective countries (Sweden, Finland, Belgium). The authorities were informed about the possibilities to make energy and environmental concerns an integral part of the request for public procurement and STEPUP was demonstrated to them. One of the events was the parallel session on 'Local and regional energy action in public transport' during the OPET 'Energy issues in transport' conference in May 2004.
• The instrument on CD-Rom and the handbook for authorities was made available to all OPETs and other interested organisations.

Actions
- Workshop
- Seminar
- Technical Handbook
- Calculation tool

Financial resources and partners
Partners in this project and their roles were:

• SenterNovem: (Netherlands): task leader, update and elaboration of STEPUP tool, seminar for OPETs, dissemination to OPETs and other interested organisations
• STEM (Sweden): trained to use STEPUP, dissemination to public transport authorities
• Motiva Oy (Finland): trained to use STEPUP, dissemination to public transport authorities
• VTC/VITO (Belgium): trained to use STEPUP, dissemination to public transport authorities

Results
The results of the project are laid down in three main deliverables, which are available from the OPET Network website:

• Report on Co-OPET Task 5.6 seminar on promoting clean buses for public transport by including ecological requirements in the tendering process, 18 July 2003
• STEPUP Excel plus guidelines, October 2003
• STEPUP Handbook for authorities, November 2003
• Seminars for authorities in different countries

The STEPUP tool was 'Europeanized', improved and elaborated and a Dutch handbook was translated and adapted for use in other countries. The tool was discussed with different (associations of) transport authorities and companies in the countries mentioned. Closest to using it during the lifetime of the project was the Transport Department of Helsinki Metropolitan Area Council. However, the project period was too short to see this through. The Swedish association of PT authorities was initially reluctant, but was keener towards the end of the project - contacts are still ongoing. Moreover, interest was raised in Romania and Portugal, and among participants in the DG ENV SIPTRAM project (Sustainability in the Public Transport Market).

The project showed the benefit of OPET as a network for international collaboration concerning the promotion of energy technologies. Tools developed and applied in one country can be spread to others without every organisation having to 'reinvent the wheel'.

Lessons learned and replication potential
At the beginning of the project, there were no comparable instruments like STEPUP in other countries. In some countries, there are national procurement guidelines for companies, and most if not all countries require regular vehicle testing. Some also apply limits to average age of buses and/or regular soot emissions controls as part of the tendering or direct procurement. All OPETs and stakeholders involved, agreed that the tool can be very useful in their country, even if the context for application will differ in some respects such as a different tendering process. The project helped to identify additional fields of application too: t he tool is also useful in cases where public transport services are tendered by bus line (e.g. Finland, Romania), and it can also be re-programmed for application in urban distribution and for municipal car fleets. There is thus a large replication potential for this project. Several OPETs, in addition to the project partners, intended to raise awareness about the instrument in their countries too (Spain, Romania, Bulgaria, UK).

A lesson learned, however, is that timing is very important for actual application of STEPUP. There is a certain window in the public transport tendering process in which the tool should be applied - being too early or too late diminishes the value of the results. Finding and using this window is difficult to plan in advance, which is a point of attention for future promotion activities.

Printed reports or other literature available
The Strategic Tool for Ecological Transport (STEPUP) digital tool and a handbook on using it can be downloaded for free from the website www.opet-network.net/opetnetworkinfo/areaofwork/transport.html.

- STEPUP Handbook for authorities, November 2003
- STEPUP Excel plus guidelines, October 2003
- Report on Co-OPET Task 5.6
- Seminar on promoting clean buses for public transport by including ecological requirements
- in the tendering process, 18 July 2003.
- Cost: free; downloadable from OPET website.

Other contacts
SIPTRAM project (Sustainability in the Public Transport Market), www.iclei.org/europe/siptram/.