An elevated bus that rides above traffic and can potentially carry as many as 1,400 passengers has been demonstrated in China.

The proposal, unveiled at the 91th China Beijing International High-Tech Expo in May, called for a bus that spans two traffic lanes, rides on rails outside existing lanes, has articulated segments, and provides 2.1 metres of clearance underneath for cars.

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The Xinhua news agency reported in May that Beijing-based company Transit Explore Bus were building a life-size model they intended to test in July or August.

They have hit the target, with video from China's CCTV News showing the model rolling over cars on a road in Qinhuangdao, Hebei province.

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The model, which debuted with a red ribbon taped to its nose, has one segment and can carry 300 people.

It also misses some refinements from the computer-generated animations of the proposal, such as an underside painted to simulate the sky and windows allowing drivers underneath to look out to the sides — although it does have lights underneath.

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Passengers embarked from an elevated platform instead of the extending ramps shown in the animations, but photos of the inside of the prototype show a finished interior, with more standing space than seating and plentiful poles and hand rails for standing passengers.

If the electric busses can be built to the scale of the initial proposal, each one would replace 40 conventional buses, cutting annual fuel consumption by 800 tons and carbon emissions by almost 2,500 tones, chief engineer Song Youzhou told Xinhua in May.