Bus loans in the Amsterdam Region

The Amsterdam Transport Authority (Vervoerregio Amsterdam) is the public transport authority in the Amsterdam area. They have several operating contracts (concessions) with transport operators. In these contracts, the operator is responsible for procuring and maintaining the buses, as is common in the Netherlands. In order to maximize the number of e-buses, the Amsterdam Transport Authority offers a bus loan to the transport operators, thus arranging the financing of newly bought buses for the operators. Because the Amsterdam Transport Authority is a public organization, it can arrange financing with lower interest rates than the operators can do themselves. By using the bus loan, the operator can decrease the costs of financing, and will thus be able to procure more e-buses within a given budget, as e-buses require a substantially higher investment than diesel buses.

In order to minimize the risks for the Amsterdam Transport Authority, and to guarantee that the e-buses remain available for public transport regardless of the circumstances, the operators have to set up a dedicated company with the sole purpose of owning the e-buses bought with the bus loans. They have to agree that the buses in this dedicated company remain available for public transport use, even if the operator were to go bankrupt, or if the transport operating contract were to expire prematurely.