TRANSITION TOWARDS CLEAN FLEETS IN CRAIOVA

Summary

Increasing the use of alternative fuels and of clean and energy efficient vehicles and enhancing their integration into the urban transportMore specifically the main objectives of the measure were:to define a realistic funding scheme for purchasing new clean buses to renew the public transport fleet and to plan the buses acquisitionto identify the typology of buses able to decrease the emissions by 5 % and to define their technical specifications.

Implementing sustainable mobility

This measure aimed at bringing a contribution to the improvement of the quality of life by decreasing the pollution level, increasing the travellers comfort and, in general, the image of the city by defining a realistic funding scheme to renew Craiova’s public transport fleet with 100 new ecological buses.The strategy of the Municipality and RAT Craiova to replace old buses with clean buses has begun in November 2008 with the purchasing of 17 new buses, MAN Lion’s City Euro 4(Fig. A2.1), using the Municipality own financial resources.
According to the 2008 investment plan of the Municipality were bought 17 new buses. RAT Craiova and the Municipality acquired these buses based on the analysis of appropriate buses typology, in terms of pollutant emissions and passengers comfort. The 17 new buses were included in the 100 active buses that are running daily in the city, provide travel comfort with low pollution.

Progress

Within the measure, a specific analysis was carried out in order to find out how to use in an optimal way and in coherency with urban needs, different funding sources including European Structural Funds (European Regional Development Fund – Transport Operational Regional Programme 2007-2013), European Bank of Investments funds (BEI), COMPRO for purchasing eco buses and ELENA programme. The activities within the measure consisted in appraising the funding programs mentioned above in order to decide in accordance with the financial possibilities of Public Transportation Company and Municipality.
On the one hand, some of the Funding programmes analysed do not finance acquisition of clean buses, these programmes being focused on financing the transport infrastructures only. Others are not suitable for the actual economical context because they would increase the indebtedness of the Municipality.

There were analysed various open calls for access, available for purchasing new clean buses
The following open calls and opportunities were found:
 Transport Regional Program( ERDF- European Regional Development Fund, Structural Funds- 2007-2013)
 ELENA Program – support the cities in acquisition of ecological buses.

 COMPRO project

 Own financial resources( money coming from the Municipality)

The Municipality of Craiova City decided to consider a priority the acquisition of new clean buses, as a result of these measure outcomes. In this regard it was decided for 2013 to purchase 50 new clean buses, this acquisition being included in the investment list. The acquisition will take place on the basis of the technical specification and the tender documentation developed within this measure and described above, in the stage 2 of measure implementation.

Outcomes

Considering that the outcomes represent the end results of the project within this measure we can set two groups of outcomes:
1. The tangible results consisting of 17 new clean buses with low emission level acquired during the project lifetime and the technical requirements for new clean buses based on a large analysis of market offer and on findings of some EU projects dedicated to this issue
2. Evaluation results focused on environmental aspects and on transport service quality in case of using new clean buses.
The main outcomes are represented by the evaluation indicators considered as being relevant to define the environmental and transport quality impact of the measure. Thus, the environmental outcomes in case of replacing NON EURO buses with EURO IV buses are:
• CO2(g/vKm):  decreased with 1 %
• CO(g/vKm):  decreased with 76 %
• NOx(g/vKm):  decreased with 36 %
• Pm exhaust(g/vKm):  decreased with 96%
By introducing of 17 new clean buses in the public transport fleet the emissions decreased slightly but if the whole active fleet of buses would be replaced with clean buses the emissions would record significant decreasing.

In terms of quality of the public transport service the main outcomes in case of introducing of new clean buses would be more comfort, safety and satisfaction for passengers. In addition new and comfortable buses could lead to the increasing of the public transport users.

Based on these outcomes and on the EU policies related to the development of one sustainable urban transport, the Municipality of Craiova City decided to consider a priority the acquisition of new clean buses. In this regard it was decided for 2013 to purchase 50 new clean buses, this acquisition being included in the investment plan.