Bucharest mayor decides to buy new buses instead of used ones

Bucharest mayor Gabriela Firea said that the Bucharest City Hall will acquire 500 new buses for which it may spend some EUR 100 million. The authorities initially wanted to purchase used buses for its fleet. However, the municipality hasn’t found any producer that could deliver 200 used bus until this fall, Firea explained. The City Hall will initially buy 300 buses this year and another 200 buses in a second stage. Bucharest’s public transport company RATB currently owns 1,000 Mercedes Citaro buses, which were bought during the term of the former mayor Adrian Videanu. However, only a part of them are currently operational, according to Firea. “Only 600 are in traffic whereas 300 are abandoned in the depot either because they have missing parts or because they are broken,” the mayor said in an interview for Hotnews.ro. She added that it would cost to much to repair these buses, which is why RATB will buy new ones. Firea says that a new generation bus with air conditioning sells for around EUR 200,000. This would make the municipality’s total investment some EUR 100 million. After the local elections in June, Gabriela Firea promised that she would make public transport in Bucharest free of charge. She then nuanced her statement and said that the public transport service needed investments before making it free. Only 6% of Bucharest’s residents are happy with the public transport editor@romania-insider.com