The Superbus, a 15-metre-long limousine developed by Wubbo Ockels, is getting a new home near Groningen. The National Bus Museum in Hoogezand has acquired the futuristic vehicle from the collection of the now-bankrupt Dutch Transport Museum in Nieuw-Vennep, where it had been on display since the end of 2020.
It seems a fitting location, as Wubbo Ockels — who passed away in 2014 — was originally from Groningen, and he conceived the Superbus as an alternative to a high-speed rail link to the west (the Lelylijn), which kept being delayed and is still pending.
Ockels came up with the idea for the Superbus in 2003, after being stuck for hours behind a broken-down train. A “train on wheels”, he figured, could keep moving. The concept sparked plenty of criticism within TU Delft, but after the Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport (VWS) granted €7 million in funding, the Superbus became reality.
In May 2012, the Superbus received its registration number (BZ-XG-15) and was cleared to go on the road. Five years later, in 2017, TU Delft handed over the vehicle to the Lelystad Transport Museum Foundation. When the foundation was forced to close due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Superbus was transferred to the Dutch Transport Museum in Nieuw-Vennep at the end of 2020. When that museum also shut down in 2023, the National Bus Museum was approached.
NBM director Rob Bezema was happy to make space for it. When exactly the Superbus will go on display is still unknown.
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