GAZ Group has developed and supplied a whole fleet of new buses to carry visitors to the Olympic and Paralympic Games. The buses were specially designed to conform to the requirements of reliability and safety for international events of this level. According to the Autonomous Non-Commercial Organization “Olympics Transport Directorate”, since 7 February approximately 42,000 passengers have made between 2 to 4 daily trips on “Olympic” GOLAZ and LiAZ buses serving the routes of the Coastal and Mountain clusters.
During preparation for the Olympic Games in Sochi a traffic management intelligence system was created which allowed the city road network traffic to increase capacity by 2.5 times and the system certainly proved its high efficiency with the volume of passengers on bus routes reaching up to 2,000 people per hour.
More than 100 bus routes were developed to serve athletes, representatives of the Olympic family, mass media and fans and traffic jams were avoided partly due to dedicated bus lanes. At peak times of loading the bus traffic interval was up to one bus per minute. Vyacheslav Bauer, Deputy Director of Passenger Transportation Department says, “We chose the right type of rolling stock: both the 15 and 12-meter buses have been particularly useful and the high speed of landing in low-floor city buses enables no crowding of passengers at bus stops”.
GAZ Group created 709 GOLAZ buses and 30 LiAZ buses especially for guests and participants to the Olympic and Paralympic Games. The new buses showed an extremely high maneuverability in the difficult terrain of the Sochi mountain cluster due to the rear steering pivoted axle and the effective work of Scania engines with high torque. The buses are equipped with unprecedented safety systems: smoke detectors, video surveillance and firefighting systems, onboard navigation terminal of communication with the traffic control station. LiAZ city buses are equipped with the system “Speaking City”, which allows blind and partially sighted people to get information about the route and whether its doors are open for landing.
The buses are equipped with the GLONASS system that allows their location to be tracked on a real time basis. Control over passenger transport movement is carried out in the Transport Logistics center of Sochi. The automatic control system monitors the workload of the Olympic routes and technical condition of the buses. On-board equipment installed on each bus allows the dispatcher to control online the situation in the cabin and the operation of safety systems of the bus.
Buses to serve the Olympic and Paralympic Games are placed in 3 specialized fleets of the city: in the mountain and the coastal cluster, and in the Olympic Park. The Central traffic control station of the GAZ Group Bus Division, which receives and processes applications for maintenance and repairs in cases of road accidents involves more than 100 high-grade technical specialists of GAZ Group and Scania. There are also mobile teams which can provide technical assistance on the routes if necessary.
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For service of the Olympics in Sochi GAZ Group supplied 282 GOLAZ-5251 large buses “Voyage” (including 150 special configuration vehicles for passengers with reduced mobility and wheelchair users), 370 extra-large GOLAZ-6228 buses “Voyage L” (including 77 special configuration vehicles), 57 coaches GOLAZ-52911 “Cruise”, and 30 low-floor LIAZ-5292.30 buses. After the Olympic Games, GOLAZ buses will serve the routes of Moscow suburbs, and LiAZ buses – those of St. Petersburg, thus being included in the program “Olympic legacy”.
GOLAZ-5291 Cruise coach based on the Scania chassis meets the Euro-4 emissions standard. Its passenger capacity is 45 persons which is ideal both for touristic and long-distance intercity routes. The coach is equipped with the 400 h.p. Scania engine. The increased baggage space (10 m3), electronic suspension control system with the function of lifting and lowering the body for crossing bad sections of the road, individual service blocks for passengers ensure comfort in long routes. The coach has a wide range of options: fire-extinguishing system for the engine and baggage compartments, interior smoke sensors, five video surveillance cameras, Wi-Fi, onboard navigation and communication system linked to the dispatch office, and others. The basic configuration of the coach includes double glassing, climate control and cruise control systems, onboard computer, digital tachograph, heated mirrors, automatically driven gearbox Opticruise, and seat belts.
GOLAZ-6228 Voyage L and GOLAZ-5251 Voyage coaches meet the Euro-4 emissions standard. They are designed for intercity routes of over 500 km. Though the length of Voyage L is 15 m, it is highly maneuverable: minimum turning radius is 12,5 m. It is based on the three-axle Scania chassis. The coach is equipped with the 310 h.p. Scania DC09 101 engine. The onboard navigation and communication system, interior video cameras, automatic fire-extinguishing system, temperature and smoke sensors are optional. The passenger capacity of GOLAZ-6228 Voyage L is 95 persons, of GOLAZ-5251 Voyage – 60 persons. 227 Voyage coaches are equipped with cassette lifters and one wheel chair place each. In 2013, GOLAZ-5251 Voyage won the Bus of the Year award at the Thirteenth Annual Contest “Best Commercial Vehicle in Russia” held as part of the Comtrans’2013 Show.
LIAZ-5292.30 bus meets the Euro-4 emissions standard. The new component base of LIAZ-5292.30 provides for the life cycle of over 1 million km. The bus is equipped with the 275 h.p. Scania engine of the last generation. The low floor and the footboard without stairs ensure quick getting on/off for the passengers and thus reduce the route time by 15%. Smoke sensors and video surveillance cameras are installed inside the compartment. The cockpit is equipped with an alarm button for emergency connection to the dispatch office. It is a wheel-chair accessible bus. The passenger capacity of the bus is 112 persons which is the best result in the large bus class. The buses are equipped with the “Speaking City” system that allows weak sighted people at the bus stops to learn about the route and whether the doors are open or not using special devices.
