HyMove tour through the Achterhoek

The HyMove bus made a long test run along various environmental projects in the province of Gelderland on Thursday 8 September. The technicians were accompanied by officials and a member of the Gelderland Provincial Executive.

 The HyMove bus made a long test run along six places in the province of Gelderland on Thursday 8 September. As well as testing the bus, the run was also intended to let the Office for Environmental Protection and member of the Gelderland Provincial Executive Annemieke Traag become acquainted with the vehicle. The guests accompanied technicians Toinne Meekes from e-Traction and Mark Rugebregt from NedStack on their journey to visit various environmental projects in the province.

The HyMove bus left the provincial government house in Arnhem for the natural gas filling station and the air quality monitoring station on the Pleyroute. It then set off for the fire and rescue service in Zevenaar, which was visited in connection with the provincial policy for external safety. The next location was the Cool Nature Park in Didam, an initiative for bringing children into contact with nature. The bus then moved on to Beek, travelling over the quiet asphalt surface of the N335. The waste disposal site in Gaanderen was the next stop. The Municipality of Gaanderen received acceleration funds for the soil decontamination of this site in 2007. The waste disposal site adjoins a nature conservation area that was dug out in 2009. The last stop the bus made was in Terborg, where a project for reconstructing the town centre was initiated in 2009. Annemieke Traag considered the tour to have been most successful. “It’s good to see in practice what the province is doing in contributing to the environment. The HyMove bus is one good example. Riding in it is a special experience, and it’s comfortable and quiet”, she says.

The test run was completed to the complete satisfaction of Jan van Beckhoven, director of the Stichting Waterstof Onderneming Gelderland Institute [Gelderland Hydrogen Enterprise Institute] . “The bus covered a total of 85 kilometres during the tour. It demonstrated that it was reliable when it is carrying a large number of people and has to stop and start regularly”, said Van Beckhoven. Technician Toinne Meekes was also satisfied. “The bus drove the way it was supposed to, and we had no reason to intervene during the journey. At the moment we work out the power of the bus manually, and the next step is to automate the entire process.”