It will take months for all 140 new electric buses that Greece has just acquired to be put into service, with officials from the Ministry of Transport pointing to late August or early September. Until then, the new buses will hit the streets in different phases.
“All 140 electric buses have been integrated into the capital’s transportation project. Of them, 46 buses today – for the first time – serve citizens. The ministry said in a statement last Friday that their number is expected to double in the coming weeks.”
In fact, out of 140 buses, only 46 can now run, with another 94 buses parked in the bus garage. The reason is that the project to install charging infrastructure permanently was not completed in time.
While operator OSY has purchased 140 electric buses from China, the permanent installation of charging stations that would allow them to operate and circulate smoothly on the streets of Athens is not yet complete. As the buses arrived, in order to find a way to circulate them, OSY built a temporary facility of 10 chargers at charging stations, which was not enough to charge them all, so 32 of the 140 buses were put into trial operation for a month.
The Ministry attributes the delay in the project – related to the installation of 70 slow-charging devices with two sockets in four stations – to the clarifications requested by the Audit Bureau. “While the project in Thessaloniki only needs 35 days to complete, the court in Athens delayed us to get comments and clarifications, so we are one and a half months behind Thessaloniki,” says a ministry source.
However, it has been delayed until tender, with the deadline for submitting bids – after the original date was postponed – set for early January. Based on the announcement, the date for completing the supply and installation was set three months after the announcement.
OSY sources dispute that the fact that only one in three buses rotates is “because we want to make measurements in real conditions.”
(Tags for translation)Sustainability
