In the Cologne / Bonn conurbation, from the Erft and the Belgian border to the Bergisches Land and from the border with Rhineland-Palatinate to the border with the Düsseldorf conurbation, Regionalverkehr Köln GmbH has been operating a significant part of the inter-municipal transport services since 1 June 1976. It was established as the regional successor to the two federally owned bus transport companies Deutsche Bundesbahn and Deutsche Bundespost and was initially also owned by the Federal Republic of Germany. In the 1990s, no agreement could be reached with the Verkehrsverbund Rhein – Sieg (VRS) regarding the distribution of revenue among the individual member companies of the VRS. The federal government then lost interest in its RVK and sold it into municipal hands. Today, eight municipal transport companies from the region, such as Cologne’s KVB, Bonn’s SWB and Troisdorf’s RSVG, each own 12.5 % of the company.
RVK committed itself early on to operating its buses electrically in the future. The Managing Director at the time, Eugen Puderbach, made a clear commitment to hydrogen fuel cell buses to the author. Question at the time: ‘Why no battery-electric buses?’ Puderbach: ‘We can’t build recharging stations at every remote terminus in villages in the Eifel or Bergisches Land. That would be far too expensive, and what’s more, the existing electric infrastructure in some places would not be sufficient to supply a recharging mast for buses. That’s why we need buses that generate their own traction current.’ Just like a bus with a fuel cell does.
In 2011, RVK took delivery of its first buses with fuel cells: buses 10 and 100. They were two Phileas 18s from the Dutch manufacturer APTS – actually outstanding vehicles full of even more outstanding technical ideas. But as is always the case with completely new technical developments, they were full of teething troubles. And before APTS could cure them all, the company went bankrupt. What a pity! One of the two Phileas is still alive today: it sits in a far corner of the Mechernich depot … decidedly too good to be scrapped.
In 2014, the next two fuel cell buses, the 400 and 500, joined the RVK. They are solo buses, their supplier was Van Hool (unfortunately, today we have to say ‘was’) and they are of the ‘New A 330 FC’ type. They worked to our complete satisfaction right from the start. They only had one ‘problem’: they were still very heavy and therefore had to be three-axle vehicles.
The real breakthrough of the fuel cell bus at RVK came in 2020, when RVK and Wuppertal’s WSW (under its then boss Uli Jäger) formed a purchasing consortium and jointly ordered 45 Van Hool New A 330 FCs, 10 for Wuppertal and the other 35 for RVK. In the meantime, the design had become lighter and these buses were (and still are) only two-axle vehicles.
Further hydrogen buses came from Solaris in the following years (Solaris Urbino 12 hydrogen). Until a few days ago, the RVK had 83 hydrogen buses – nobody in Europe has more buses with fuel cells.
On 3 September 2024, another major step towards electric operation was celebrated at RVK. Eight ‘Solaris Urbino 18 hydrogen’ articulated hydrogen buses were put into service at the Wermelskirchen depot in the form of buses 392 to 399. Apart from the two Phileas from 2011, they are the RVK’s first hydrogen articulated buses. There are not yet many of these buses available throughout Europe, but deliveries are currently picking up speed. A random example: in Aschaffenburg, too, ‘Solaris Urbino 18 hydrogen’ buses will soon be in operation.
RVK plans to put ten more Solaris hydrogen articulated buses into operation at the Meckenheim depot this month. Two of these will initially be made available to the Hürth depot.
Over the next five years, RVK wants to halve the CO2 emissions of its fleet.
The RVK has big plans in Meckenheim anyway. In addition to the existing depot, the new ‘Meckenheim II’ depot will be built in the ‘Unternehmerpark’ industrial estate. This is where the hydrogen buses will be stationed and where they will be refuelled (refuelling time is similar to that of a diesel bus). What’s more, RVK wants to produce its own hydrogen here with the help of an electrolyser. The ground-breaking ceremony for the new ‘Meckenheim II’ depot is imminent.
With the new hydrogen articulated buses for Meckenheim, RVK will then have 101 fuel cell buses in operation. RVK Managing Director Dr Frank: ‘This makes us the largest in the whole of Europe. Nobody has more buses with this technology.’ And by the end of 2025, there should be 160 buses with hydrogen fuel cells. By then, almost half of RVK’s own buses will be equipped with this technology. (There are also quite a few subcontracted buses on the RVK network).
The subsidies for the RVK’s hydrogen buses
The purchase of all these hydrogen buses was and is made possible by government subsidies (Federal Ministry for Digital and Transport Affairs) totalling 33,888,000 euros. The first four hydrogen buses were still very expensive: the two Phileas cost almost two million euros each, while the first two Van Hool buses cost around 1.5 million euros each. In the meantime, the prices for hydrogen buses have fallen significantly; roughly speaking, you can expect to pay around twice the price of a corresponding diesel bus. The funding amount also includes subsidies for the infrastructure at the depots, such as the hydrogen refuelling stations. And finally, the feasibility studies that preceded the purchase of hydrogen buses were also subsidised by the federal government.
Operation of the hydrogen buses
The new hydrogen articulated buses from Wermelskirchen will primarily be used on RVK line 260 (Remscheid – Wermelskirchen – Burscheid(-Hilgen) – Leverkusen(-Schlebusch) – Cologne(-Mülheim) – Cologne main station). Line 260 is the longest line in the RVK network, travelling 1 hour and 54 minutes from end to end. It is important to RVK that it can gain extensive experience with the new hydrogen articulated buses on this route, which is heavily used by commuters, as the route includes both interurban and urban sections.
RVK also operates several (articulated) buses on Bonn’s urban transport network on behalf of its parent company SWB. I ask Managing Director Dr Frank whether the new hydrogen articulated buses for Meckenheim are possibly intended for use in Bonn. But Dr Frank replies in the negative: ‘As hydrogen buses, they are ideal for use in intercity transport. It would be a shame to run them in the city. The battery electric bus is ideal for the city.’ (A pity for Bonn: as the RVK does not yet have any articulated battery buses, diesel buses will be used here for the time being. All right, the vehicles used are still quite young and fulfil the currently strictest Euro VI emissions standard).
Incidentally, the RVK also has battery-electric buses. Not many, but they do. Buses 100 and 300 (from the Meckenheim depot) are two Solaris Urbino 12 electric buses, while buses 301 to 307 come from the Austrian/Slovenian manufacturer K-Bus and are of the ‘E-Solar City XL’ type. They run on the Euskirchen urban transport network, and RVK Managing Director Dr Marcel Frank says: ‘Battery buses are ideal for urban transport.’
The planned ‘green mobile depot’ in Bergisch Gladbach
However, RVK is not only procuring hydrogen buses, it is also investing in new depots. We have already mentioned the new ‘Meckenheim II’ depot above. In addition, a new depot for 50 buses is to be built in Bergisch Gladbach (a large city directly to the east of Cologne, which tends not to stand out next to the metropolis). Its name, ‘Grüner Mobilhof’ (green mobile depot), reveals that it will be a facility specially designed for hydrogen buses. As in ‘Meckenheim II’, it will include an electrolyser with which RVK will produce its own hydrogen. Dr Frank: ‘In Meckenheim and Bergisch Gladbach – and in the future also in Mechernich – we will produce our own hydrogen; at the other depots, the hydrogen will be delivered by tanker.’
Technical data Solaris Urbino 18 hydrogen:
- Length: 18,000 mm
- Width: 2,550 mm
- Height: 3,300 mm
- Passenger capacity: 140 passengers, including 53 seats
- WLAN and USB charging sockets
- Fuel cell: Ballard (Canada), output: 100 kW
- Electric central motor: 240 kW
- Differential gearbox
- Tank: 8 pressurised cylinders made of composite material on the roof, tank capacity: 50 kg
- Battery capacity: 60 kWh of Solaris batteries
- Blind spot warning system
- Acoustic exterior warning system
- Range: 350 km
- Permissible total weight: 29,000 kg
