Innovative bus gets a test run in Hebei

"Batie", a double-deck bus that holds passengers on its upper level and allows other vehicles to pass underneath, made its debut test run on Tuesday in Qinhuangdao, Hebei province.

Called a Transit Elevated Bus (TEB), it is 4.8 meters high and 7.8 meters wide, allowing vehicles with a height of less than two meters to run below.

The TEB-1 which was on trial at the time, runs on electricity and has a 22-meter-long carriage.

It was tested for its braking distance, the coefficient of friction and electricity consumption.

With 55 seats and 20 vertical handrails, it can hold up to 300 passengers.

Its interior is double the size of a regular city bus, according to its maker, TEB Technology Development Co Ltd.

The company claimed it as an original invention from China with independent intellectual property rights.

With two LCD TVs and four digital maps installed inside the bus, passengers can watch TV and check on the city's real-time traffic conditions.

The novel and big "thing" has aroused much curiosity on the internet.

More than 50,000 "likes" were given on a post about the bus on the micro-blog Weibo and 20,000 users commented.

Most of them expressed interest and said it was cool, while some raised doubts.

"Other vehicles higher than two meters cannot drive along the same road with a TEB bus, thus reducing the road's utilization rate," a Weibo user named Dafenqilemei said.