Imagine a world where you could order a luxury bus to pick you up from your home and take you to a destination of your choosing in noiseless comfort at speeds of up to 155 mph. Furthermore, you would pay the same as to travel on today's public transport network. It sounds like a dispirited commuter's rush-hour fantasy, but according to Wubbo Ockels, a physicist at the Netherlands' Delft University, this is no dream.

Professor Ockels is the inventor of the Superbus, which was unveiled to the world in Germany last month. His revolutionary concept, born out of bad experiences travelling on the Netherlands' trundling regional rail network, aims to combine "a high speed train with the flexibility of a road vehicle". It also boasts impeccable green credentials, powered as it is by an electric motor. However, sceptics warn that while the technology and logic that back it are unimpeachable, fundamental impracticalities could hinder the Superbus' adoption into the European transport mainstream.