A bus-train has been developed in Germany and is still in service in Essen
A decade ago in Germany, an unusual transportation experiment called the Spurbus was launched—a hybrid of a bus and a train designed to combine the convenience of road travel with the punctuality of rail transport. Today, only one operational section of this project remains in Essen, which still carries passengers.
Germany has long been known for not being afraid to experiment with transportation, and one of the most interesting such projects was called the Spurbus—an attempt to literally combine a bus and a train into a single mode of transport that would move quickly, precisely, and with almost no driver error.
The idea seemed quite bold: instead of conventional train tracks, narrow concrete guides were created, and the buses were equipped with special rollers on their front wheels that kept them in the channel and set a precise path.
In fact, on certain sections of the road, the vehicle behaved like a train—the driver didn’t even need to hold the steering wheel, as the system itself guided the bus along a predetermined track, ensuring stability and precision. “The idea seemed revolutionary,” is how transportation researchers describe this project, as it was intended to combine the flexibility of a bus with the precision of rail transport.
Despite ambitious plans, the system did not become widespread, and today only one operational Spurbus section remains in Germany, in the city of Essen, where this unusual mode of transport is still used to carry passengers. This experiment remains more of a unique example of engineering boldness than the future of mass transit, but it still attracts attention as one of the most extraordinary attempts to transform urban transportation. Vezess reports on this.
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