Prague is planning a huge purchase of electric buses and a new electrification line
Škoda Electric recently completed its order in the form of an additional 14 new buses for Dopravní podnik hl. m of Prague. After the takeover, these buses immediately came into operation on lines 154 from Strašnická to Koleje Jižní Město and 213 from Želivského to Nádraží Uhříněves. The first batch of Škoda E´CITY electric buses received registration numbers 3001 to 3014 and a registration mark starting with the letters EL intended for electric cars, hydrogen cars or plug-in hybrids with an emission footprint of up to 50 g CO2 per kilometer. So I know them very easily in operation.
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However, according to behind-the-scenes information and the words of the head of the transport company, Petr Witowski, that is not all. The DPP and metropolitan management has decided to announce a new tender this year for the supply of another 100 electric buses and 70 partial buses, or “half” trolleybuses. Given the previous price of electric buses, when one additional cost is needed to buy a new battery, the carrier cost less than CZK 15 million and we are talking about partial buses for about CZK 31 million apiece, a huge tender worth attacking CZK 4 billion can be expected.
A new electrified line from Smíchov to the airport is being prepared
The reason for this tender may be the newly planned electrification of line 191, which leads from the Na Knížecí bus station at Ruzyně Airport. In the plan published in EIA notification register is information about the partial electrification of about 20 km of line lines. Partial buses will appear on this line, which will run with the contact wire for a while and on the battery for a while without it. According to DPP estimates, the total implementation costs were to amount to CZK 580 million.