Norway: Arrival of the first e-buses in Bergen

An important step towards the start of the fossil-free bus network in December 2020

 On 10 September, the first batch of 29 electric buses arrived in Bergen  as part of a contract awarded by Bergen’s Skyss public transport authority for Keolis to operate and maintain 138 fossil-free buses, including 102 all-electric vehicles. The all-electric Yutong buses are being shipped from Shanghai in three batches and are due to arrive in Bergen by the end of September 2020.

Expected to carry 17 million passengers a year, the fossil-free buses will contribute to improving quality of life for the nearly 300,000 inhabitants of Norway’s second largest city, where Keolis already operates the light rail network.

Featuring 88 12 metre-long buses and 14 15 metre- long buses, the vehicles will offer 7 to 10 hours of autonomy depending on operating conditions. The shift from diesel to electric vehicles will reduce CO₂ emissions by approximately 85% over the duration of the bus contract. Each diesel bus replaced with an all-electric alternative will save about 50 tonnes of CO₂ per year.

The buses are temporarily parked in a parking lot in Bergen and will be transferred to the Mannsverk depot, scheduled to open in early November 2020, where work is underway to install the recharging infrastructure.

The nine and a half year contract for the operation and maintenance of 138 fossil-fuel-free buses, which also includes 10 trolley buses made by Solaris and 26 HVO buses made by Volvo, was awarded to Keolis on 17 June 2019. The management team has been recruited and 285 full-time drivers are being voluntarily transferred from the incumbent operator or recruited externally. The bus drivers will start operations on 1 December 2020 after completing their training programme.

Keolis’ commitment to accelerating the transition to greener energies worldwide

Keolis works hand-in-hand with public transport authorities around the world to integrate more sustainable mobility within networks for the benefit of passengers and the environment. The Group operates fossil-free buses in Sweden, Denmark, the Netherlands, the US, Canada and France, where it has recently launched electric and hydrogen Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) lines.

The full news is attached. Copyright of the pictures: Keolis. In the first attached picture: Gry Miriam Olsen, CEO of Keolis Norge; Left: Atle Flo, rolling stock project manager and right: Raymond Våge, head of training.