Keolis awarded electric bus operation in Copenhagen
Public transport operator Keolis has received a new order from Movia for the operation and maintenance of 47 buses in the Copenhagen area, 32 of which will be purely electric. The contract that worth over 100 million euros, is scheduled to start in June 2021.
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The contract has a term of up to ten years with an option to extend for another two years. Movia is the public transport authority for Eastern Denmark and has tendered the concession for the Region of Zealand, Denmark’s largest and most populous island with 2.5 million inhabitants and home to the Danish capital Copenhagen.
For the contract, Keolis intends to hire 170 employees, including 150 drivers, and equip four depots on Zealand with charging facilities – Naverland (Copenhagen), Slagelse, Korsør and Nykøbing Falster. The latter will also be responsible for the maintenance of the vehicles with the workshop.
“Movia can count on our full dedication to delivering the best passenger experience and supporting the transition to greener buses, thanks to our worldwide experience in zero-emission bus operations in Sweden, Norway, the Netherlands, France, Canada and the US,” says Bernard Tabary, international CEO at Keolis. The company was awarded the contract to operate zero-emission buses in Gothenburg, Bergen and three Dutch provinces in summer 2019.
So far, Keolis has not revealed which buses they will use for the order. The French public transport operator generally makes use of different manufacturers. In Bergen, Norway, about 88 E-buses were ordered from the Chinese manufacturer Yutong, but also 10 trolleybuses from Solaris. In the Netherlands, Keolis relies on electric buses from BYD. For hydrogen projects in France and Denmark, different fuel cell buses from Van Hool have been put into operation.
Update 30 June 2021:
On June 27, Keolis began operating the bus network in the Greater Copenhagen area on Denmark’s most populous island, Zealand, as contracted by the public transport authority Movia last year. Of the 59 buses, 42 are purely electric, which is ten more than originally announced.
Keolis has not provided any details on the models or manufacturers in their announcement, but have published photo showing vehicles from the Chinese manufacturer Yutong in Movia colours. In Bergen, Norway, Keolis also uses electric buses from Yutong, while in the Netherlands it uses electric buses from BYD.
The purely electric vehicles now in operation are said to have a range of around 350 kilometres and can be recharged over six hours overnight. Keolis operates 24 routes in Zealand, serving four other cities on the island besides Copenhagen.
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