China’s Elevated Bus Turns Out To Be A Total Scam. Here’s Why

Humans have come a long way from using animal carts for transport to flying in the air at supersonic speeds. Innovative transport ideas keep coming up, and we dream of transport to transform entirely with means like Hyperloop. One such idea to get a mass transit public vehicle right above the city traffic came from China. About a year ago, China unveiled the elevated buses that could travel over the cars on the road, and as it turns out, the entire thing was a scam.

CNN

The elevated bus was to run over 300 meters of track along a roadway, but soon after the unveiling, suspicious setbacks were reported. The project site just became a road block, gathering dust for years with the excuse of financial problems. After the giant vehicle began to create problems congesting the road at the test site in Northern China, authorities began to investigate the issue, only to figure out the entire project was a hoax.

Beijing police opened an investigation after the company behind Transit Elevated Bus was alleged of raising illegal funds, and the police have announced that 30 people connected to the money raising platform Huaying Kailai have been held, who raised funds from individual investors. Southern Metropolis Daily reports that the company had raised 9.1 billion Yuan ($1.3 billion) by October 2016, just two months after its first public test in the city of Qinhuangdao. 72 of the investors have filed suit against the company, and the police are trying to recover the funds.

BBC

The unusual mass transit bus was highly anticipated, but suspicions began to arise when the design firm Autek was not paid the millions it was owed for its work on the bus and track laid unused long after its permit deadline on August 31st. After this deadline, TEB had to pack up everything and clear the roadway, but it stood there causing trouble to the commuters driving there. Finally, the city’s government ordered to demolish the tracks and move the bus to a parking garage.

A lot of us were excited about the unusual public transport, but sadly that was all a lie that has finally come to an end.

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