Five electric buses are to be acquired by the city of Chania, with the aim of connecting the peripheral car parks currently being created with the city centre. An agreement for their supply along with a cleaning vehicle and 2 charging stations, at a cost of €3.85 million, was signed by the mayor of Chania Panagiotis Simandirakis on 18th November 2022. Funding is coming from the Interior ministry’s “Antonis Tritsis” programme.
Present at the signing of the contract were directors of the contracting company MES Energiaki AE and the bus manufacturer TAM Europe. Representing the municipality of Chania in addition to the mayor were three deputy mayors and the managing director of the city’s car park management company, KYDON AE.
In his remarks after the signing, the mayor said: “This is a very great effort which relates to the municipality of Chania’s policy on energy saving and environmentally friendly transportation, as well as a response to the city’s major traffic problem, since these buses will provide a shuttle service connecting the peripheral car parks with the centre.” He also noted that the cost of funding will not fall upon the citizens, since the entire sum of €4 million is coming from the “Antonis Tritsis” programme. “The answer to our traffic problems lies in such steady, significant steps,” he said.
The deputy mayor for Finance, Tasos Aloglou, described the development as “a major undertaking which was started over the past two years and is completed with today’s contract signing. Perhaps most important for us among the specifications which we set for the tender was that the new electric vehicles have a continuous low floor at road level, so as to easily admit disabled passengers.”
The Vero electric bus manufactured by Slovenia-based TAM Europe is modular in design, enabling it to be produced rapidly in different sizes and configurations. The version being acquired by the municipality of Chania is 8 metres long and can accommodate 40 passengers with 15 places for the disabled.
Cooperation with the urban KTEL
Asked by the Haniotika Nea who will be driving the new buses, Mr Aloglou said that the municipality was cooperating with the urban KTEL, with whom it will sign a contract for the provision of drivers, and also possibly for the use of KTEL buses for the free transport of citizens from the car parks to the city centre.
The five new 8-metre long electric buses can each carry at least 40 passengers, with the provision of 15 places for the disabled. They will have advanced features enabling them to operate in the narrow, confined streets of the city centre, including four-wheel steering for greater manoeuvrability.
The buses are expected to be supplied in the near future, while a further tender is envisaged at a later date for the supply of four more electric vehicles which will be used as service vehicles by the municipality of Chania.
The Antonis Tritsis programme, which is running from 2020 to 2023, is funded by the Interior ministry and ESPA, and aims at supporting the environmental and social development needs of local government. It has a total budget of €2.5 billion.
(Haniotika Nea, November 2022)