Bus contract between Wiener Lienien and Solaris dropped

A contract between Vienna public transport operator Wiener Linien and the Polish bus manufacturer Solaris for the delivery of ten hydrogen buses has apparently fallen through.

In addition to 60 battery-electric buses from Daimler, Wiener Linien had also ordered ten fuel-cell buses from Solaris in November 2022. According to a report by the Hungarian trade portal Magyarbusz, Wiener Linien withdrew from the framework agreement with Solaris because the leased demo bus did not perform satisfactorily during the test runs. Solaris, on the other hand, claims to have stopped the order itself after Wiener Linien did not finalise it by the deadline.

Nevertheless, the Austrian capital seems to be sticking to its plan to procure hydrogen buses. According to Magyarbusz, Wiener Linien announced a new tender for the purchase of 10+2 hydrogen buses in April. It is questionable whether Solaris will submit a bid again. The portal speculates that with the existing order for the 60 BEV buses for Vienna, Daimler Buses has a good chance of also scoring with the new fuel cell version of the eCitaro.

In 2020, the company had initially launched the tenders for the sustainable bus fleet.

magyarbusz.info (in Hungarian), sustainable-bus.com