ROTTERDAM SWITCHES TO ELECTRIC BUSES

S olaris Bus & Coach has started deliveries of the 38 articulated buses ordered by the Cracow transport

company MPK. The buses are powered by an Euro 6 engine and are fitted with air conditioning, a ticketing machine for coins and debit cards, CCTV, a modern pas-senger information system and USB ports. Each bus is also equipped with a special platform that will facilitate entry and exit of passengers with reduced mobility. «Solaris has been cooperating with MPK Cracow since 1997», points out the Polish manufacturer. «During this time, we delivered 462 buses to the capital of Lesser Poland Voivodeship, including 26 zero-emission vehicles with electric drive. In January this year, Solaris, in a consortium with Stadler Polska, signed a framework agreement with MPK Cracow for the supply of 50 low-floor trams». •

ARTICULATED BUSES FOR KRAKOW CHINESE ELECTRIC

BUSES FOR OSLO

BusToCoach on-line Magazine - September 2018 FLASH NEWS

S olaris Bus & Coach has presented the world’s first mobile blood donation centre in an electric bus. It was built on the basis of the

Urbino 8.9 LE electric bus model. This is the first of two vehicles commissioned by the Regional Blood Donation Centre (RCKiK) in Katowice, Poland. It’s fitted with two specialist mobile blood donor lounges, a doctor’s office, a reception area plus a small catering area. The bus is powered by an electric drive of 160 kW and batteries with a capacity of 160 kWh. The electric bloodmobile was designed and built in a way that allows to hold blood donation campaigns without interruption in city centres, shopping malls, sports halls, i.e. in venues where conventional vehicles - i.e. with a normal combustion engi-ne - for blood donation cannot be used. The vehicle meets all standards and regulations applicable for blood donation centres, but it also enables the remote transmission of data to the Blood Bank computer system. The Solaris electric bloodmobile won an award at the International Invention and Innovation Show INTARG 2018. •

FOR BLOOD DONATION

VDL Bus & Coach has been awarded by RET based in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, for the supply of 55

electric buses. The VDL Citea SLF-120 Electric buses will be deployed for scheduled service in Rotterdam, Schiedam and Vlaardingen starting in late 2019. VDL Bus & Coach is also system supplier and will provide the charging infrastructure as well. During the day, the buses will be topped up through an opportunity charging along the lines where 300 kW rapid chargers are installed. At night they will be charged at the depot through a 50 kW slow charger. Both the daytime and night-time charging will be done via a pantograph on the roof of the buses. The VDL Citea SLF-120 Electric model is a low floor e-bus with a two-door configuration and a length of 12 meters. •

T he Chinese manufacturer BYD has been awarded by the transport company Nobina based in Oslo for

the supply of 42 articulated electric buses. The vehi-cles are fitted with a pantograph and are scheduled for delivery in the second quarter of 2019. They will be

added to the two articulated BYD ebuses put on service by Nobina in December 2017. This is the largest electric articulated fleet in Scandinavia. Jan Volsdal, managing director of Nobina, said: “Over the next ten years Oslo is planning to run a zero emission public transport system and we, together with BYD, are making a big contribution to make this plan come true.” •

SPANISH ELECTRIC BUSES IN FRANCE

I rizar e-mobility has signed a contract with the transport company RDT 13 based in Aix en Provence, France, for

the supply and maintenance of 15 twelve meter Irizar ie tram zero emissions buses with charging infrastructure. The-

se high service level (BHNS) buses, which have been called L’Aixpress, will join the western part of the city of Aix en Provence with the southern part. The line will run 7.2 km and it will include 19 stops. The project will include the installation of pantograph type opportunity charging stations at the beginning and end of each line and other smart char-ging stations in the depot. The first vehicle will be delivered in April, 2019 and the rest will be put into service in September of the same year, as soon as the BHNS L’Aixpress line is operational. •

C hanging date for the international bus and coach trade fair FIAA in Madrid. IFEMA and the FIAA Organising

Committee have decided to change the next edition to Octo-ber 2020. «These new dates place the fair at the best time to promote the professional event, with special focus on large and small fleet visitors», point out the organizers. «The strong industry backing, along with the excellent results from FIAA

2017, leads to important expectations of growth for the 2020 edition, where 140 companies are expected to participate, with an international representation of approximately 25%». Thus, the fair organizers are already holding conversations with the European jury of the MiniBus of the Year to host the competition and awards ceremony in 2021 and 2019, re-spectively.The final dates of the fair will be announced in Autumn 2018. •

THE FIAA IS POSTPONED TO 2020

IVECO SCHOOL BUSES IN BRAZIL

A fter an interval of seven years, Busworld Asia will come back in 2019 under a new brand- Busworld China. The

exhibition is organized by Busworld International and VNU Exhibitions Asia Ltd. The focus will be on global futuristic public transport and clean energy. The Busworld Academy Congress will be held onsite to discuss and share in focus upon technologies regarding ride-sharing, autonomous driving and fuel cell etc. with the integration of

speakers domestic and overseas. Busworld China is scheduled on March 11-13, 2019, at the Shanghai World Expo Exhibition & Convention Center (SWEECC). •

BUSWORLD CHINA IN 2019

MAN HYBRID BUSES IN WARSAW

BusToCoach on-line Magazine - September 2018 FLASH NEWS

FOR MEDICAL ASSISTANCE

C NH Industrial’s large contract for the state of Minas Gerais, south-east Brazil, came to life in June with the

delivery of the first batch to the city of Patos de Minas, in the region of Triângulo Mineiro. These vehicles are used to transport students from public schools. The order includes a total of 900 buses, vehicles from the CityClass, WayClass and SoulClass ranges on the Iveco 70C17 chassis and SeniorClass on the 150S21 chassis. They will be all equipped with a mobile arm device (DPM) to fa-cilitate passengers with reduced mobility. This solution was launched by CNH Industrial and Iveco Bus in 2016 in Brazil, offering all the people in the vehicle the same conditions of comfort and safety. The vehicles negotiated with the Government of Minas Gerais are designed to operate in urban and rural environments while maintaining comfort and safety on board. “This negotiation was conducted through a government offer and aims to provide quality transport in the educational network of the state,” said Renato Perrotta, Iveco Bus sales director for Latin America. •

T he transport company Mobilis put on service 61 hybrid buses in the Polish Capital. The vehicles are all MAN

branded. They are the Lion’s City Hybrid buses powered by a 250 hp (184 kW) Euro VI diesel engine combined with a high-performance electric motor. The electric motor is pro-vided with additional power by recuperating the vehicle’s braking energy, which is stored in ultracaps. The recupera-ted and stored energy is used to enable a zero-emission, low-noise approach to bus stops. The driver is protected against intruders by a full-screen cab door. •

C luj-Napoca, Romania. Solaris Bus & Coach has comple-ted the delivery of 11 electric buses to the CTP transport

company. The 12-meter Urbino electric buses are the first emis-sion-free battery vehicles in Romania. They were purchased under the Swiss-Romanian Cooperation Programme. The model commissioned by the Romanian operator is fitted with a cen-tral 160-kW electric motor and 200 kWh traction batteries. The on-board equipment includes, air-conditioning and a complete

monitoring system. Furthermore, the Urbino electric buses have the option of offering free WiFi access. They can carry up to 78 passengers, of which 27 seated. Investments in charging infrastructure involved the construction of 11 slow-charging and two fast-charging stations using roof-mounted pantographs. The supplied Solaris Urbino 12 electrics are the first part of an order that can be optionally extended to as many as 41 buses in the coming three years. •

SOLARIS ELECTRIC BUSES IN ROMANIA

IRIZAR FOR LUXEMBOURG

V oyages Emile Weber has presented the first six electric buses of the ten that will be delivered

during the year to the Luxembourg company. The vehicles are the 12-m Irizar i.e. buses with two do-ors, USB ports and the “Eco Assist” system. The manufacturer declares a range of over 200 km gua-

ranteeing 16 hours of driving in heavy traffic conditions. The vehicles will be loaded over-night in depot using six chargers with Combo - CCS2 connectors supplied by Irizar. The other four 18-meter units will be reloaded only in depot. This model has been operating since 2014 in a dozen European cities with proven battery range, efficiency and reliability of batteries. For Voyages Emile Weber group, the initiative is part of the “Empowering Mobility” program whose goal is to electrify mobility. •

A bus fitted with all the usual equipment that a doctor needs. In short, a ‘medibus’. The vehicle has been

delivered by VDL Bus & Coach to the German company DB Regio Bus. Built by VDL Bus Venlo in cooperation with VDL Bus Heerenveen and VDL Bus Chassis, me-dibus has been developed on a VDL Citea LLE-127 bus model. The vehicle has been fully customized with four rooms complete with cabinets, furniture and its own air conditioning. A large awning has been fitted to the side of the bus to provide an additional waiting area on location if necessary. There are solar panels mounted on the roof of the bus that provide clean energy. Medibus will be leased by Bayern Express & P. Kühn, a subsidiary of DB Regio Bus, to KVH (Kassenärztliche Vereinigung Hessen, Association of Statutory Health Insurance Physicians). •