Major order from Arriva Netherlands for Citea city buses including electrics
HOLLAND Arriva Netherlands has ordered 228 Citeas from VDL Bus & Coach. Of those 166 will be deployed in the Dutch concession in Limburg while the remainder will be used in Southeast Friesland and the West Frisian Islands. The order consists of 151 VDL Citea LLE-120s, 14 VDL Citea SLF-120 Electrics and four articulated VDL Citea SLFA-180 Electrics. A further 19 VDL Citea SLF-120s, 28 VDL Citea LLE-99s and 12 VDL Citea LLE-99 Electrics are also to be deployed in Limburg. The Citea LLE-99 is 9.9 metres long, making it a new length variant of the VDL Citea LLE, and it recently also became available in a fully electric version.
Theo Toussaint, board member of VDL Groep, said: “We are very proud to be able to deliver so many buses to Arriva Netherlands once again. An added bonus this time is that the vast majority of the buses are to be built in Friesland. The plant in Roeselare, Belgium, will also make several vehicles. We are very pleased too that Arriva Netherlands has chosen the West Frisian Islands and the city services in Maastricht and Venlo for the highly successful electric variants of the Citea SLF, Citea SLFA and Citea LLE. These quiet, clean buses will contribute to a better living environment and constitute an important step towards improving the sustainability of public transport in the Netherlands. The collaboration with Arriva is to be extended even further, since we will be carrying out the maintenance of the buses in Limburg and the electric Citeas on the West Frisian Islands.”
