London’s new electric busses have a surprising look—and can charge in just 6 minutes

“You now see a lot of people on the sidewalks looking at the vehicles and saying ‘Wow, what is that?’” says Andy Derz, a business development manager at Irizar e-mobility, the Spain-based company that designed the tram-like bus. “It’s a very striking vehicle. It draws people onto the vehicle.”

The side doors slide open—also like a train—and inside, big windows fill the bus with light, which makes it feel a little wider than a typical bus. The seats are also arranged with wide aisles. “It’s much lighter and much brighter, and it gives a sense of space for the passengers,” Derz says. “London transport buses are very, very busy, so the more of a feeling of space you can get on a vehicle, the happier the passengers are.”

The interior also has other perks to improve the experience for riders, including more comfortable seats, a smoother ride, displays that show upcoming stations, mood lighting that changes with the seasons, and USB ports for charging phones. At stops, the bus is low enough to the ground that passengers don’t have to step up to get on.

The rounded, sloping front end of the vehicle helps make it safer for pedestrians and cyclists, since a blunt front is more likely to seriously injure or kill someone in a crash. If someone is hit, the new shape means that they’re more likely to be pushed to the side rather than pinned under the front. The bus has other safety features, including audible warnings outside the vehicle, automatic limits on the speed, and cameras instead of mirrors to give drivers full visibility.

The buses are electric and designed for quick charging. At each end of the 15-mile route—one of the longest routes in London—the driver stops under an overhead charger and pushes a button. The bus automatically connects to the charger, and tops off the battery in about six minutes; it’s not a full charge, but can recharge about 20% of the battery. The buses can also charge at night, but having the ability to charge en route, called “opportunity charging,” makes it possible for each vehicle to stay on the road longer.

“Opportunity charging means that drivers don’t need to return to garages during the day to recharge,” says Lorna Murphy, director of buses at Transport for London, the government body that runs most transportation in the city. “This means fewer buses are required on the route, bringing savings that can be invested into other areas of TfL’s network, in addition to the benefits of cleaner, greener travel.” More frequent charging means that the batteries can be smaller, reducing the weight of the buses, and potentially reducing cost. (The system doesn’t always work perfectly, at least during the initial rollout: One YouTube review by elementary students noted that they had to change buses because the battery ran out of charge on the first one they boarded.)

The city is in the middle of transitioning its entire bus fleet to electric, and it already has more than 1,700 zero-emissions buses on the road. (Route 358, the first to use the new buses, has 20 of them.) London is also adding new bus lanes for faster service. A new network of 10 express bus lanes, called the Superloop, launched last year.

In the U.S., where a growing number of cities are rolling out bus rapid transit service, a different physical design might also help convince more people that riding the bus could be a better alternative to driving—and that could help improve both pollution and traffic. Buses are often seen as inferior to trains, but a train-like bus might change perceptions.