The problem of buses in Brno: half run on expensive gas, soon they don’t even have to leave
The Brno transport company still does not have a supplier of compressed natural gas for its buses for next year. No company applied for the tender. Representatives of the city company are also preparing for the option of not choosing anyone. “The idea that you will not have anything to refuel, you will not take to the streets and you will not take people, we do not even want to admit it here,” said the general director of the transport company Miloš Havránek.
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Articulated bus. It runs on CNG and has air conditioning.
| Photo: DPMB
The carrier has a total of three hundred buses, about 160 are on gas. By the end of the year, it has a contracted price of about 460 crowns per megawatt-hour, now the price on the stock exchange is around 2600 crowns, ie about six times higher. Gas propulsion is unlike others, even diesel. “On weekends, we try to run mainly diesel buses. It is not possible on weekdays, “Havránek mentioned. They need up to 260 cars a day.
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With current consumption of gas and electricity, this year’s estimated loss of the transport company is around four hundred million. “The company calculates the loss every month. We compensate it from the budget and pray that it will stop, “Petr Kratochvíl, the councilor for transport, told Deník Rovnost.
In the city budget, they expected energy prices to rise in advance, so they set aside a half-billion reserve, from which they are now drawing.
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The transport company’s representatives are preparing a crisis scenario if the supplier does not supply gas. “It is especially important to provide backbone tram transport,” says Havránek.
Do not scrap old diesel buses
The transport company also has about 140 diesel buses in its fleet. “This year we should get another forty for diesel under a long-term contract,” said the director of diesel. Part of the strategy is not to scrap old buses and keep them in the fleet for a while.
According to economist Petr Pelc, the carrier will have no choice but to pass on losses to fare prices. “It can affect the overall volume of traffic. Only the socially weaker section of the population will be more likely to recalculate which mode of transport is effective for them, “he intended.
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The transport company has recently slightly modified its timetables. However, according to city officials, changing fares is not a topic at present. “It’s a vicious circle, if we want to accept more comfort with more connections, we get at a loss,” said Kratochvíl.
Pelc reminded that a possible increase in price must take a lot in Brno. “If energy or fuels become cheaper, the fare will not go back down,” he said.
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