More frequent, more comfortable and more environmentally friendly: Bratislava Transport Company deploys a new fleet of trolleybuses

Starting from next Saturday (3 February), the quality of public transport travel will be further improved. MEGAtrolleybuses with a much greater capacity will be introduced on line 71. The single-articulated hybrid trolleybuses will be joining the airport line 61, which will now run more frequently. New articulated 18-metre battery-powered trolleybuses will be deployed on line 40, substantially increasing passenger capacity over the current 12-metre trolleybuses. The new trolleybuses will also head to Dlhé diely in the summer.

Line 61 connecting the Main Station with the airport will be served by new eco-friendly trolleybuses from Saturday, 3 February 2024, while the section without overhead lines (Trnávka - Avion - Airport) will be powered by energy from the vehicles’ batteries. The switch from diesel to electric propulsion on line 61 is an important ecological aspect that contributes to improvement of the environment on the route Main Station - Trnavské mýto - Trnávka - Avion - Airport. Along with the deployment of the new trolleybuses, there will also be an improvement in the interval at the busiest times from 10 to 7-8 minutes (weekday afternoon rush hour), which will increase the capacity by up to 21% on average all the year-round. The new vehicles offer greater capacity than the buses currently in service, while also offering space for comfortable luggage transport.

Line 71 will see a significant improvement with the addition of large-capacity over-24-metre-long MEGAtrolleybuses. On the route Main Station - Trnavské mýto - Miletičova - Gagarinova - Vrakuňa Cemetery - Čiližská, the capacity of individual connections will increase by almost 50 people compared to the existing 18-metre vehicles for the benefit of residents of Vrakuňa, Podunajské Biskupice, Ružinov, as well as passengers travelling to the business centres on Prievozská Street. Line 71 will also cope with the surge in number of passengers when several trains arrive at the Main Station at the same time. Trolleybuses on lines 71 and 72 will continue to depart from Dolné hony at peak hours at a 3–4-minute intervals.

"I am delighted that, with the deployment of new vehicles, we will increase the transport capacity of the busiest trolleybus line 71 and that line 61 will join our "trolleybus family". The deployment of new trolleybuses on the routes previously used by buses means a further expansion of environmentally friendly transport in the city," says Martin Rybanský, DPB’s Chair of the Board.

Line 40 will soon receive new articulated 18-metre trolleybuses with battery power, replacing 12-metre trolleybuses with diesel power units. Combined with the increase in the number of connections at peak hours (weekday mornings and weekend afternoons), the capacity will increase significantly by up to 53% (on average all the year-round). Travelling in the section Main Station - Račianske mýto - Bus Station - New SND will become much more comfortable.

Change of platforms at the Main Station

With regard to the common sections of the routes, the platforms of lines 40 and 61 at the Main Station will be changed. Line 61 will now depart from the (outer) platform D, which means that lines 61 and 71 heading to Trnavské mýto will be served by the same platform. Line 40 will now depart from (inner) platform F.

Once the driver training is completed, the new 12-metre battery-powered trolleybuses will be put into service in March. Accordingly, lines 41 and 44 will be merged into the new route of line 44 Koliba - Hodžovo nám. - Hrad - Búdková - Drotárska cesta - Hroboňova - Main Station. This will lead to a direct connection from the Main Station to the Castle or from the area of Drotárská cesta to the city centre. The section of the route without overhead lines (Búdková - Drotárska cesta - Hroboňova) will make use of energy from the vehicle batteries. The transport service will be improved for residents of the Old Town, students commuting from trains to the dormitories, or visitors to the Mountain Park.

In the summer, new air-conditioned trolleybuses will also be deployed on line 33. They will replace the old non-air-conditioned vehicles that have been running on the Dlhé diely route since 2006.

High standard of the new vehicles

The trolleybuses are equipped with features that are already familiar to passengers from other vehicles purchased so far. These include, in particular, powerful air-conditioning, heat-absorbing glass, as well as an advanced information system. Large screens displaying transfers in real time, audio announcements even for the visually-impaired and a large colour LED panel on the front of the vehicle, which displays, among other things, the time until departure from the first stop on the route, are used to keep passengers informed.

A total of 50 new battery-powered trolleybuses, the purchase of which was co-financed by the Operational Programme Integrated Infrastructure, will be put into service in the first quarter of 2024.