government, the Department of Energy and the Department of Transportation, to develop a prototype flywheel bus. In the 1980s, Volvo briefly experimented with using flywheels charged by a small diesel engine and recharged via braking energy. This was eventually dumped in favour of using hydraulic accumulators. During the 1990s, the Dutch Centre for Concepts in Mechatronics had developed a flywheel for both mobile and stationary applications. In 2005, the Center for Transportation and the Environment, working with the University of Texas at Austin, Center for Electromechanics, Test Devices, Inc., and DRS Technologies sought funding for the development of a prototype gyrobus. Early commercial service The first full commercial service began in October 1953, linking the Swiss communities of Yverdon-les-Bains and Grandson. However, this was a route with limited traffic potential, and although technically successful it was not commercially viable. Services ended in late October 1960, and neither of the two vehicles (nor the demonstrator) survived. The next system to open was in Léopoldville in Belgian Congo (now Kinshasa in the Democratic Republic of the Congo). Here there were 12 vehicles (although apparently some reports suggest 17), which operated over four routes, with recharging facilities being provided about every . These were the largest of the gyrobuses, being in length, weighing , carrying up to 90 passengers, and having a maximum speed of . There were major problems related to excessive "wear and tear". One significant reason for this was that drivers often took shortcuts across unpaved roads, which after rains became nothing more than quagmires. Other problems included breakage of gyro ball bearings, and high humidity resulting in traction motor overload. The system's demise, however, came because of high energy consumption. The bus operator deemed that 3.4 kWh/km per gyrobus was unaffordable, so closure came in the summer of 1959 with the gyrobuses being abandoned and replaced with diesel buses. The third location to use gyrobuses commercially was Ghent, Belgium. Three gyrobuses started operation in late summer 1956 on a route linking Ghent and Merelbeke. The flywheel was in the center of the bus, spanning almost the whole width of the vehicle, and having a vertical axis of rotation. The Ghent to Merelbeke route was intended to be the first of a proposed multi-route network; instead, its gyrobuses stayed in service for only three years, being withdrawn late autumn 1959. The operator considered them unreliable, "spending more time off the