Representatives of Częstochowa’s municipal transport company have signed a contract to receive 40 gas-electric hybrid buses by November 2015.
Częstochowa received 65.95m zł (€ 15.3m) for the purchase of the new vehicles, made available through a competition by Poland’s National Fund for Environmental Protection and Water Management (link is external). According to Gazeta Wyborcza, this will be the first time gas-electric buses will be seen on Polish roads.
Poland’s Solbus will produce the new vehicles and expects to be testing them on the streets of Częstochowa in the first half of this year.
‘We are proud that Częstochowa received the funds in the framework of the national competition, and that it is our city that will introduce new technologies in public transport for the people and environment,’ said Jarosław Marszałek, Deputy Mayor of Częstochowa.
The competition had 80m zł (€ 18.5m) to allocate towards hybrid buses, but received applications requesting a total of 643.6m zł (€ 149m) to fund the purchase of 362 buses.
The city of Gdynia also received money from the fund, successfully bidding for 14m zł (€ 3.2m) to put toward the purchase of 10 buses.
Original author: Alexia
