Thursday 22 July 2021

Bernmobil teams up with Siemens to drive sustainable bus transport

Bernmobil, the Swiss capital's public transport company, has awarded a contract to Siemens for charging infrastructure solutions for 14 new electric buses.

The project includes fast charging units at three terminal stations - Elfenau, Blinzern and Bremgarten - as well as charging infrastructure for the Eigerplatz bus depot, with a cloud-based depot management solution to optimise operations.

The electric buses can be charged with a power of up to 450kW during their scheduled stops - the connection of the charging unit is fully automatic so nothing needs to be manually connected.

Depending on the weather and route conditions, the e-buses will be able to cover between 110km and 200 km without recharging.

The project, expected to be delivered in the beginning of 2023, is expected to help reduce carbon emissions by 1,200 tons per year and supports Bernmobil's ambition to operate all its lines with electrically-powered vehicles over the next 15 years.

Markus Anderegg, deputy director and head of technology at Bernmobil said: “Bernmobil is committed to driving the electrification of public local transport in the Swiss capital. Our goal is a completely climate-neutral bus network with 100% electrically powered vehicles by around 2035

“A reliable and efficient charging infrastructure is an important prerequisite for us to achieve our goal. With Siemens, we have a partner with whom we have had a long and good working relationship in the streetcar sector.”