With the Olympic Games just around the corner, security concerns and public transportation issues are making headlines. The latest news that combines both involves taking five hydrogen-powered buses out of service for the duration of the games.
The concern is that hydrogen is highly combustible and the Olympic Delivery Authority (ODA) ruled that storing large amounts of hydrogen at the Lea Interchange refueling station in Stratford presents a security risk, LondonSE1 reported.
Diesel-engined buses will replace the hydrogen ones for the duration of the Olympic and Paralympic games. When the hydrogen-fueled buses go back into service in mid-September, the fleet will grow to eight. They currently service the RV1 route from Aldwych to Tower Gateway.
Unfortunately, the hydrogen buses, which have covered over 100,000 miles and can run 18 hours on one tank of hydrogen, spend nearly as much time in the garage as on the road because of maintenance issues and the added difficulty of finding spare parts.
