Benefits of electric bus mooted.

Could an autonomous electric bus offer Shepparton’s CBD a new public transport alternative into the future?

That is the question a working group of people are considering in piecing together a grant application for a feasibility study into exploring the idea.

The "Olli" is one of the autonomous buses being considered for the project.

While any shuttle service may be a while off, a pre-feasibility study on a proposal seeks to assess whether it could offer ‘‘the continuous linking of key Shepparton activity centres’’ via such a service into the future.

‘‘Plans are under way to seek funding under the Victorian Government Community Climate Change Adaptation Grants Program for an investigation into the feasibility of introducing autonomous electric buses into the Shepparton public transport network,’’ according to the project’s proponents.

Connections between centres such as GV Health, Shepparton Railway Station and TAFE have been flagged by the project’s champions, while the group says several electric bus manufacturers have expressed an interest in a trial such as the one being investigated.

Working group member John Pettigrew said the plan for now was to secure a feasibility study into the idea.

‘‘The plan is an autonomous shuttle bus (that) would do a loop backwards and forwards from two set points in Shepparton,’’ Mr Pettigrew said.

‘‘We’ve got a few key areas around town that could be linked up.

‘‘At the moment, we’ve taken the opportunity to put together a small working group to apply for a grant.’’

Mr Pettigrew hoped the idea might stimulate community discussion around the use of autonomous electric buses locally.

But he conceded there was a need for legislation around the vehicles to be embraced by governments for them to be completely autonomous.

Such a service, described by Mr Pettigrew as ‘‘part of the transport solution’’ may lead to reduced numbers of parked cars and congestion in the CBD.

Mr Pettigrew said while ‘‘the technology is there,’’ ‘‘legislation is needed’’, but that the group was interested in opening up a discussion to allow other interested parties in the community to partner on it.

‘‘All we’re trying to do at the moment, is to get together a working group that can get on to this pretty quickly,’’ he said.

‘‘It’s going to supply a speedier service between key activity services in Shepparton.

‘‘I see it as complementing what we have in existence at the moment . . . not in competition.’’

The idea emerged from a SLAP Tomorrow session, including working group member, Carl Russell, who has ‘‘been researching this for some time’’.

Mr Pettigrew’s understanding was that such a service were used on roads across the world, legislation ended to be put in place for them to run on public roads in Victoria.

The deadline for the grant application was late March, he said. 

● Anyone interested in assisting with the idea is encouraged to contact SLAP Tomorrow members.

Story from The Shepparton News - “Benefits of electric bus mooted.”