A new era in city bus transport in Saarbrücken began on 5 May 2025: Saarbahn, the city transport company of the Saarland state capital, presented its first five hydrogen buses at a presentation in the bus depot on Malstatter Straße. They were supplied by the Northern Irish bus manufacturer Wrightbus and are of the ‘Kite Hydroliner FCEV’ type.
Saarbrücken is not the first company in Germany to use fuel cell buses of this type from Wrightbus. Last November, 31 Kite Hydroliners went into operation at RVK (Regionalverkehr Köln GmbH), operating from the depots in Meckenheim (near Bonn) and Hürth. In Meckenheim, they are used on routes in the urbanised Bonn area, while in Hürth they are used for local city transport. Wrightbus was able to deliver further vehicles to ‘west Verkehr’ in Geilenkirchen. To date, they are the westernmost buses from this manufacturer in Germany, as it is only a few kilometres from Geilenkirchen to the Dutch border. The easternmost Wright buses in Germany (so far) are running in and around Cottbus, where the transport company ‘Cottbus-Verkehr’ owns 46 of these vehicles.
How do transport companies in ‘continental Europe’, where people drive on the right-hand side of the road, get hold of buses from a country with left-hand traffic? It’s simple: they put the supply of hydrogen buses out to tender, and one of the manufacturers submitting a bid is Wrightbus from Ballymena in Northern Ireland. The terms of the offer are interesting, people in Ballymena see how Wright builds its buses, they are impressed by the quality of the vehicles and the contract is awarded.
The fact that the buses were originally designed for left-hand traffic is not a problem. Technically, the same construction plan can also be realised for right-hand traffic without any problems … You simply tell your computer to ‘mirror’ the construction plan. But even in the days before computers were so advanced, MAN and Mercedes, for example, were already supplying buses for left-hand traffic, for example to the UK (articulated Citaro for London) and Australia (MAN SL 200).
The Wright buses for Saarbrücken
The five coaches that Saarbahn has now unveiled are the first from an order for 28 coaches. They arrived in Saarbrücken from the factory on Saturday 3 May. One employee said at the presentation of the buss: “We had to work day and night over the weekend. After all, we still had to get the buss ready for the presentation. For example, we had to cover them with film to give them the look we wanted, we had to install the software for the destination signage …”
The presentation concluded with a demonstration ride. Saarbahn Managing Director Karsten Nagel had previously announced: ‘The buss are particularly quiet.’ This was absolutely confirmed during the test drive. The author sat down in the area of the bus where the electric motors and drive axle work. If so, you should be able to hear something there! But no, there was virtually nothing ‘on the ears’. Accordingly, Nagel said: “With these buses, we are making traffic in our city quieter. When we only have buses with electric drives, urban bus transport will be much quieter. So we are doing something for our city.”
28 million euros will be invested in the 28 hydrogen buses and the construction of the hydrogen refuelling station. The ‘Federal Ministry for Digital and Transport Affairs’ – which will no longer exist under the new federal government, then we will once again have a ‘Ministry of Transport’ that will only deal with transport – has subsidised the measure with 11.1 million euros as part of the ‘Directive for the promotion of alternative drive systems for buses in passenger transport’.
The hydrogen refuelling station at the depot
And while we’re on the subject of the hydrogen refuelling station: it will be built at the depot. As Saarbahn still had natural gas buses until recently, there is currently still a natural gas refuelling station there. This is now being dismantled and will be replaced by the hydrogen refuelling station. Managing Director Nagel: ‘We no longer have any natural gas buses, this technology has not proved its worth for us.’ Interesting fact: neighbouring company Forbus from the neighbouring French town of Forbach, with which the city-connecting line 30 is operated, (still?) runs natural gas buses.
Green hydrogen from the Freisen wind farm
The hydrogen that Saarbrücken’s ‘Hydroliners’ will refuel with will be produced in an electrolyser at Saarland’s largest wind farm in Freisen. As wind energy supplies the electricity for its production, it will be ‘green hydrogen’. This means that no pollutants are released during the production of the hydrogen. Petra Berg, Saarland’s Minister of Transport, at the presentation of the buses: ‘It was not only important to us that the buses, including the production of the hydrogen, are completely emission-free, but also that the hydrogen comes from our own country.’
Until the electrolyser in Freisen is completed, the hydrogen will be delivered by tanker lorries from external partners.
About the ‘Kite Hydroliner’
Saarbrücken’s new hydrogen buses are 11,667 mm long, 2,520 mm wide and 3,380 mm high. Its two double-width doors are located at the front by the driver and in the centre of the vehicle. The coach can carry 90 passengers; the seats were provided by the German supplier Kiel. For passengers who are dependent on a wheelchair, parents with pushchairs or similar passengers, there is a fold-out ramp at the centre door.
The ‘FC move’ fuel cell is supplied by the Canadian manufacturer Ballard. It is located on the roof above the rear of the bus and, according to Saarbahn, gives it a range of 350 kilometres. Managing Director Nagel: “It should be borne in mind that the terrain here on the Saar is anything but flat. And a bus consumes more fuel when travelling uphill. A bus could cover more kilometres on the plains in northern Germany.”
Above the centre door on the roof are five pressurised cylinders for 40 kilograms of hydrogen, which are stored at a pressure of 350 bar. That’s 8 kilograms of hydrogen per pressurised cylinder. With a range of 350 kilometres, this means a consumption of 9.1 kilograms of hydrogen per 100 kilometres. According to Wrightbus, it takes eight minutes to refuel the completely empty pressure cylinders – which is comparable to the refuelling time of a diesel bus.
The buffer battery has a capacity of 54 kWh, comes from Microvast and is located on the roof above the driver’s seat.
Both axles come from the German manufacturer ZF. The front axle is the ‘RL 82 EC’ with independent wheel suspension, while the drive axle is the ‘AV 133’, an electric portal axle. It offers a clearance height of just 405 mm above the road surface. The bus’s drive energy is generated by two compact, high-speed, liquid-cooled asynchronous motors on the left and right rear wheels, which together deliver 260 kW (equivalent to a remarkable 354 hp). So there’s no need to worry about the bus struggling uphill.
First tasks for the new hydrogen buses
Saarbrücken’s passengers will have to be a little patient before they can travel on the new Wrightbus Kite Hydroliner FCEV. First of all, they are now entering a phase in which Saarbahn wants to test them even more thoroughly itself and train the drivers. This is because a bus with an electric motor should be driven slightly differently to a diesel bus. If you are travelling with a diesel bus, you should allow the vehicle to coast as smoothly as possible when you come to a red light, for example, in the interests of low fuel consumption. This is different for a bus with an electric motor: it should recover as much power as possible through recuperation. So it’s better to brake a little harder before the red light … The driver needs to familiarise himself with this – even if, of course, he is not supposed to perform any abrupt braking manoeuvres …
The hydrogen buses are due to go into regular service at the end of the Saarland summer holidays.
Saarbahn: we are open to technology
However, at the end of the presentation of the new hydrogen buses, Saarbahn emphasised that it is open to technology. This means that there will not only be buses powered by a hydrogen fuel cell – around 60 vehicles are initially being considered – but also electric buses with a battery as the sole power source. Managing Director Nagel: ‘In a city with the topography of Saarbrücken, there are routes that are better suited to buses with fuel cells, and others where the battery-electric bus is the more sensible choice.’
Other orders forf Wrightbus
And Wrightbus, the manufacturer of the new hydrogen buses in Saarbrücken, has announced that it already has so many orders from Germany that there will already be 160 Wright buses in Germany by the end of the year.
