FRANCE
The Île-de-France region has signed a contract for a minimum of 56 new vehicles intended for two Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) lines in the greater Paris area, with a third line an option. The order will consist of 24-metre Van Hool Exqui.City 24 bi-articulated electric buses powered by fast-charging high-power batteries and recharged by a conductive ground-based static charging system.
The vehicles selected for the scheme by regional transport authority Île-de-France Mobilités are produced by a consortium of Van Hool, Kiepe Electric and Alstom. The order will represent a world first for the type, which will be built by Van Hool, powered by Kiepe Electric’s high-power fast-charging batteries and charged by Alstom’s conductive ground-based SRS static charging system.
The buses will be used on the T Zen 4 and T Zen 5 high-quality bus routes in the south of Paris, as well with the option to expand to a third. The new service will offer passengers a higher level of space, comfort, silence, accessibility, and speed, Île-de-France Mobilités says.
Van Hool CEO Filip Van Hool commented: “We are happy and proud that Van Hool, in close collaboration with partners Kiepe Electric and Alstom, has been selected by Île-de-France Mobilités for the realisation of this unique mobility project in Île-de-France. The future of public transport is zero-emission. This solution, a world first, fully meets the high expectations of the transport authority, the drivers and maintenance staff, and passengers, for quality public transport that is sustainable and economically responsible.”
Peter Radina, responsible for the Kiepe Electric division in the Knorr-Bremse Group, observed: “For this project, Île-de-France Mobilités has put its faith in our highly experienced consortium and innovative High-Power Charging (HPC) concept for buses. For Kiepe Electric, this successful bid is a milestone, and heralds our entry into the mass transit market for e-BRT lines.”
“Alstom’s teams in France are proud to contribute to the realisation of an innovative and sustainable mobility solution for Île-de-France Mobilités, alongside our partners, with our conductive ground-based static charging system, SRS. This solution will be a world first and will offer a high level of service with great ease of operation. It will also benefit from the experience of the Nice tramway, where SRS was deployed and put into service over 15km and on 34 trams,” commented Jean-Baptiste Eyméoud, President of Alstom in France.
The new buses will be able to carry up to 140 passengers each, compared to 70 for a conventional bus and 100 for an 18-metre articulated bus, with what the manufacturer and operator say will be optimal conditions of comfort and modernity.
The T Zen 4 and T Zen 5 BRT routes are express bus lines running on dedicated bus lanes. The T Zen 4 service will cover the 14.8-kilometre distance between Viry-Chatillon and Corbeil-Essonnes. It will replace existing route 402, which is the busiest in the Paris metropolitan area, transporting nearly 26,000 passengers every day. The T Zen 5 line is a new 9.5-kilometre route connecting Paris’ 13th arrondissement with Choisy-le-Roi via Ivry-sur-Seine and Vitry-sur-Seine.
