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Hydrogen-powered trolleybuses likely to start running in Riga next year

Xinhua, June 8, 2016 Adjust font size:

New hydrogen-powered trolleybuses could start running here as early as next year, the city council's official informed today.

The purchase of the public transport vehicles is to reduce air pollution from diesel exhaust produced in the Latvian capital city. The current dual-mode trolleybuses run on both electric power and diesel fuel.

A tender organized by Rigas Satiksme municipal transport company to supply ten new hydrogen-powered trolleybuses is ending in July 2016, said Vadims Baranniks, chairman of the city council's communications and transport department. The EU's Connecting Europe Facility (CEF) will provide co-funding for the purchase of the environmentally friendly trolleybuses.

Viktors Zakis, a spokesman for Rigas Satiksme, said the EU co-funding is expected to cover 50 percent of the project's total costs, which are not yet clear as the tender is still in the process. The municipal transport company also expects the purchase procedure to take at least half a year. Rigas Satiksme has not yet received any bids from potential suppliers.

The project includes not only the purchase of the hydrogen-powered trolleybuses, but also construction of a hydrogen fueling station, which will be made available also for private transport, Baranniks said.

Public transport vehicles running on alternative fuels have already been introduced in a number of other European countries, such as the Netherlands and Germany, the city council official said. Endit