As one of his regular holiday destinations, Richard Walter recently caught up with the first examples of new deliveries of hybrid-electric buses on Tenerife, which is the largest of Spain’s Canary Islands
Swedish bus maker Scania is currently building 173 hybrid-electric buses for Canary Islands-based public transportation company Transportes Interurbanos de Tenerife (TITSA). The new buses themselves will be backed by a four-year guarantee, while the hybrid-electric batteries will have a seven-year guarantee, and are being delivered over two years, with 135 arriving in 2024 and the remaining 96 in 2025. Spanish coachbuilder Castrosua is providing the bodywork for all of the 173 chassis.
Within its range, Scania offers options spanning battery-electric, hybrid-electric, and renewable fuel-based powertrain solutions for a range of applications. The company claims that its system allows each model to be tailored to meet customers’ operating economy and sustainability requirements. The operator is already a major Scania customer, with more than 60% of its 600-strong fleet being buses from the Swedish brand. Its latest order is for 231 buses, of which 173 will be the hybrid buses, creating one of the largest hybrid vehicle fleets for any Spanish or Portuguese public transport provider.
TITSA operates the only public bus service on the island of Tenerife and ferries more than 60 million passengers annually, covering more than 35 million km across 180 bus lines. The TITSA bus fleet, locally known as a ‘guagua’ or ‘guaguas’ (one, or multiple, buses) are equipped with various passenger essentials including USB ports and WiFi. The buses are important for local residents but of course are also appreciated by the hordes of tourists that descend throughout all of the seasons of the year.
My own favourite destination is Costa Adeje which in addition to almost never ending sunshine, features vast beaches at Playa del Duque and Playa Fanabe and attractions such as Siam Park shopping mall and Aqualand water park. It also has some great locations for photographing the local bus and coach interest. During my latest visit last March, I caught up with the first of the new very smart hybrid-electric buses. As well as taking some photos, I sampled one of the vehicles as a passenger and was extremely impressed with the interior layout, the comfortable journey and the vehicle’s performance along some narrow and steep roads. As the delivery of more buses rolls out into next year, it is clear that good accessible public transport is seen to be very important to TITSA.
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