Just e-bus: busline 1 in Utrecht

In 2015 the new Provincial Government set the ambitious goal for a complete zero-emission bus fleet in 2028, but without any strategy or additional funding. At that moment only 3 e-midibuses of a total of 525 buses were in operation. The problem addressed was how to scale up to make this ambition realistic in such a way that the far-reaching expectations, the budgets/funding and the technological ZE-developments were in balance. This was worked out in a ZE-bus strategy: in 2016 the Provincial Government adopted the Action Plan Introducing ZE-Buses. Main strategy of this Action Plan was to first introduce small projects to learn from and scale up, when possible, to the final aim of a complete zero emission bus fleet.
At the same time there was a need for more buses due to an increase in numbers of passengers in Utrecht city. Although the introduction became a success, it had also faced a lot of implementational and operational difficulties in reliability and availability of the buses. But this e-start was essential in learning for further steps forward and part of the strategy described in 2016. The next step followed in 2019: the decision was made by the Provincial Government and the private Transport Company Qbuzz to buy 55 new e-buses (12 and 18 meter) and new charging infrastructure. Due to the experiences gained with all stakeholders in the previous project, now more travellers and the Utrecht Region benefit from cleaner, comfortable and silent e-buses in operation.