PRAGUE WILL HAVE ITS FIRST HYDROGEN BUS!

Škoda H'City. This is the name of the emission-free hydrogen bus that will start running on a regular public transport line in Prague in the first quarter of 2023. It will mainly serve passengers as line 170, connecting Jižní Město and the Barrandov housing estate. Prague will thus be the first city in the Czech Republic where a hydrogen bus will be tested in regular operation (for example, in our southern neighbours, Vienna, a hydrogen bus has been running since 2021). By the way, Barrandov was not chosen as the final station by chance - the company ORLEN Unipetrol is currently conducting operational tests of a hydrogen filling station, which should serve not only this city hydrogen bus but also the public during the next year.

DPP (Transport Company of the capital city of Prague) has leased the H´City bus from Škoda Group. The bus is a low-floor, fully air-conditioned, with a length of 12 metres. It can carry up to 85 passengers. It can travel at least 300 kilometres per fill-up.

"Hydrogen propulsion is a new technology for us in terms of regular operation, which we first want to test in typical conditions in Prague in regular operation with passengers and during all seasons, similarly to how we have tested various types of trolleybuses or electric buses in the past," says Jan Barchánek, head of the DPP Bus Operations Unit. "We need to obtain important data on the technical and operational parameters, driving characteristics and vehicle behaviour in winter and summer, to evaluate them from an operational and cost perspective before we decide whether to purchase hydrogen buses for the DPP fleet. We see hydrogen as another option for diversification of resources."

The testing of the H´City hydrogen bus will last for two years, with the possibility of extension for a total of four years.