Düsseldorf Rheinbahn orders 20 buses from VDL

The Düsseldorf Rheinbahn is ordering 20 battery-electric buses from the Dutch manufacturer VDL, including 15 articulated and five solo buses. Delivery of the first vehicles is scheduled for mid-2024. The number of electric buses at Rheinbahn increases to 30 with the new order.

The 20 new VDL buses are expected to operate from the depot in Heerdt on lines 729, 834, 835, 836 and SB51. The transport company does not disclose the exact variants of the Citea model. The only indication: according to Rheinbahn, the articulated buses have a minimum range of 245 kilometres and 48 seats, and the solo buses have a minimum range of 252 kilometres and 34 seats.

In future, they will be loaded at the depot in Heerdt, where the construction of a new bus port is about to start. The aim is to create the necessary charging and parking infrastructure for a total of 60 battery-electric buses, they say. With the new order from VDL, Rheinbahn is now increasing its number of BEV buses to a total of 30.

Rheinbahn had already put the first ten into service in 2020. Four months later, however, eight of them were destroyed in a fire at the bus depot in Heerdt. The Rheinbahn then immediately ordered new ones. The delivery of the Irizar ie bus solo buses is currently underway. At the same time, Düsseldorf is currently taking delivery of ten hydrogen buses – the first of which are already in test operation. The Europe-wide tender for ten more hydrogen buses is currently underway.

While Rheinbahn, as Düsseldorf’s public transport operator, will procure and use the H2 vehicles, Stadtwerke, as the energy supplier, will take over the production of the hydrogen. According to an earlier announcement, the company is investing in an electrolyser with a capacity of one megawatt in order to be able to produce green hydrogen on-site in the future. However, this will only be possible from 2026 – when the electrolyser will be powered by electricity from the local waste incineration plant.

rheinbahn.de (in German)