Brussels, 04/11/2011 (Agence Europe) - A bus is currently being put through its paces in Budapest in an effort to determine the technical improvements needed to produce a bus system of the future, best suited to meet European needs. This is the test phase in the European Bus System of the Future (EBSF) project, funded through the Seventh Framework Programme for Research and Development, which brings together five major European vehicle constructors and seven European cities. The bus being tested in Hungary, produced by MAN, has five doors rather than the more usual four, LED lighting, precise calculation of the number of passengers on board and records the GPS coordinates of the bus. Further prototypes are being tested in Madrid and Goteborg and elsewhere. Once the project has been completed, in 2012, recommendations will result in the selection of one of the buses as the “bus of the future”, or perhaps even the construction of an “ideal” bus incorporating the best features of each of the prototypes tested. (MD/transl.rt)