The presentations focussed heavily on the use of fuel cell systems in niche transportation applications and the primary topic of interest was fuel cell buses. The majority of speakers examined the performance of fuel cell buses in various demonstration programmes as well as operational experience with these vehicles and plans to deploy fleets across North America and Canada.

The highlight of all the bus presentations was Leslie Eudy’s speech on harmonisation and sharing of data from international fuel cell bus demonstrations. Eudy explained that in 2003 the U.S Federal Transit Administration began an effort to form a fuel cell bus working group. The goals of the scheme were to enhance the status of fuel cell bus programmes, collate data from across various demonstrations and coordinate better the results of such projects. Eudy highlighted several challenges faced when implementing shared data collection schemes and the efforts made to reduce these problems. The initiative has so far held four workshops, established three levels of common data collection across several bus programmes and continues to asses bus and infrastructure performance.

Moving away from buses, Bruce Rothwell of Fuel Cells Canada gave an excellent presentation on the Vancouver Fuel Cell Vehicle Programme. The programme involves five vehicles, all of which are Ford Focus cars. The objectives of the programme are to assess technology performance, increase public awareness of fuel cell vehicles, address infrastructure issues, demonstrate zero emission technologies and develop codes and standards. The vehicles have been operating since April 2005 and the programme will continue until March 2008 with a minimum target of 500 hours operation per vehicle per year of the scheme. Three fuelling stations are also operated as part of the scheme. Rothwell gave details of vehicle maintenance schedules, the wide range of partners and organisations involved in the project and early performance data.

Overall, feedback from demonstration programmes and initial results was positive, indicating that the various schemes were successful in achieving their initial goals. The morning concluded with a presentation from the Southern Fuel Cell Coalition focussing on its aims and objectives and specifically on its fuel cell forklift demonstration and the fuel cell shuttle bus data collection and conversion programme.