The free services have circled the globe eight times in seven years and carried over 2.5 million passengers
The shuttle service connecting the C – Budějovická metro station and Brumlovka is 100% electric. A pair of SOR electric buses has been in operation since February 2016, and a third electric bus started its operation this September. The reliable, emission-free vehicles have covered more than 300,000 km in more than 7 years and have already managed to travel around the world eight times. These are the first free electric buses to be put into live operation in Prague public transport. Passengers especially appreciate their quiet and smooth ride and the possibility of connecting to free wi-fi.
“The electric buses have gained a firm place with passengers between Budějovická and Brumlovka. More than 2.5 million passengers have used them since the beginning of their operation. Our latest survey showed that 58 percent of people heading to Brumlovka use them at least occasionally. 94% of passengers are satisfied with the shuttle service, mainly due to its cleanliness, sufficient capacity and connection intervals. Compared to the time before the introduction of electric buses, we have seen an increase in satisfaction by almost 20 percentage points. The overwhelmingly positive feedback has led us to fully electrify the line, so we are adding a third electric bus to the September timetable,” says Martina Draper, Customer Relationship Manager & ESG Passerinvest Group, a.s.
“Despite the significantly sloping terrain, the electric buses surprised us in real operation with their reliability and the minimal difference between summer and winter range, which is only five percent. Compared to the expected five-year lifespan, the batteries in both electric buses lasted a full two years longer, and we only replaced them this spring after 150,000 kilometres. The practice of slow overnight recharging in garages certainly helped. We also know from our drivers that people appreciate the quiet operation, smoother starting and braking, higher acceleration and more flexible driving characteristics of electric buses,” says Daniel Adamka, CEO of Arriva.
“The electric buses in Brumlovka travel over 200 kilometres a day and have proven their usefulness and reliability in operation. Emission-free drive simply belongs in cities and we understand it as a natural mission to support its development. Just as we were at the birth of the first free electric buses seven years ago, today, thanks to our 100% electrified fleet, together with our partners at Brumlovka, we are setting trends for transport companies across the country. The ČEZ Group is behind the development of electric buses in public transport in more than a dozen Czech and Moravian cities in various forms. Of course, we are also continuing to expand the Czech Republic’s most powerful network of public charging stations, where drivers on average recharge their car batteries the fastest in the Czech Republic,” said Tomáš Dzurilla, CEZ Director of Electromobility.
In 2016, ČEZ became the main partner of the project of Passerinvest Group and Arriva, which deployed the first two SOR EBN 9.5 electric buses in shuttle service on the so-called BB lines. The regular contribution to the operation of the electric buses is an expression of ČEZ’s support for the development of electric drive in the Czech Republic and at the same time its responsibility for emission-free transport services in the Brumlovka locality, where more than 4.5 thousand people commute daily by public transport. The success and popularity of electric buses among passengers led the “consortium” of operators to replace the third vehicle with an electric bus and thus to fully electrify the shuttle service in Brumlovka.
