The Municipality of Catania has been awarded over 78 million euros for the procurement of new electric and hydrogen buses for local public transportation. The Ministry of Infrastructure and Sustainable Mobility has given Catania cash from the National Recovery and Resilience Plan, which will allow 100 electric and 10 hydrogen buses to arrive in the Etna city within four years.
In recent days, the Municipal Administration has prepared a request for admission to funding on the basis of a plan shared with Amts, the implementing body of the mobility infrastructures for the green change. of public transportation in Catania, on the initiative of Councilor for Community Policies Sergio Parisi.
“They are unquestionably significant loans,” Parisi said, “that will allow for the complete renewal of the fleet of city transport buses, which will be zero-emission, in accordance with the most advanced sustainability of passenger transportation guidelines established by international organizations.” We will replace aging buses with new buses, which will benefit both users, who will be able to ride in the most contemporary and comfortable vehicles, and air quality, which will see a considerable drop in pollutant emissions. Furthermore, owing to Pon Metro funding (7.8 million euros), we will have the first 16 electric buses on the road in a few months, if not within the year, which the mayor’s council chose to acquire barely a year ago.”
In detail, Catania’s PNRR allocation of 78 million euros, or just over 57 million euros, will be used to purchase electric vehicles, with a minimum target of 30 buses being purchased and put into service by December 31, 2024, and a total minimum target of 100 buses being purchased and put into service by June 30, 2026. Just over 10 million euros of the entire sum is set aside for the acquisition of hydrogen buses, a cutting-edge means of transportation that is now being tested. Finally, another ten and a half million euros will be spent on the construction of support infrastructures for the supply of vehicles (expenses for the preparation of supply network connections, recharging stations and related equipment, and, if necessary, deposit adaptation works), all of which must be completed on time to meet the PNRR’s deadlines, with supply contracts awarded by December 31, 2023.
All of the new buses will be equipped with modern features such as equipment for access and transportation of people with disabilities, a passenger counter with electronic validation, video surveillance and devices for driver location and protection, as well as vehicle ventilation and air conditioning. In 2026, the whole Amts fleet will be totally replaced, with exclusively electric, hydrogen, and extremely low emission vehicles, for a total of 236 automobiles in the fleet, a level that has never been achieved before.
“We are realizing an effective turning point with the Amts of president Bellavia and his technicians, together with the whole council, the proactive support of the city council, and the commitment of the officials of the Community Policies Directorate directed by the engineer Fabio Finocchiaro – added Parisi – to give citizens a truly competitive public transportation offer to persuade them to leave their private vehicle, also given the soaring increase in fuel,” said Parisi. We look forward to the future beginning today, as the campaign for the integrated AMTS / FCE bus and metro pass, which will begin in April for just 20 euros per year and which we will explain in full on Thursday to encourage residents to use public transportation, will kick off in April. At the same time, we will make the video surveillance of pedestrian areas and Ztl of the historic center even more effective, while the construction site for the fast line BRT 5 (Centro-Cannizzaro) and the BRT1, which has regained its original speed and user satisfaction thanks to the redevelopment; all pieces of a unified plan of interventions to promote sustainable mobility, which has never been seriously pursued in Catania before, starting with the use of E-bikes.
In the proposal given to the Ministry of Infrastructures and Sustainable Mobility, the Municipal Administration requested an additional 24 million euros in order to acquire another 20 hydrogen buses and expand the hydrogen charging infrastructure.
