The Rhine-Erft district lies to the south-west of Cologne and, with a population of almost half a million, is one of the largest districts in Germany. Bus services in the Bergheim district were originally operated by the two state-owned bus companies ‘Deutsche Bundesbahn’ and ‘Deutsche Bundespost’. These were merged in the Cologne/Bonn region on 1 June 1976 to form ‘Regionalverkehr Köln GmbH (RVK)’. The owner of the new RVK was the likewise state-owned ‘Vereinigte Bundesverkehrs-Betriebe GmbH’ based in Cologne. RVK later became the property of eight municipal transport companies in the Cologne/Bonn region, such as Cologne’s KVB, Bonn’s SWB and Troisdorf’s RSVG.
On 1 January 1993, the Bergheim district founded its own transport company, ‘Rhein-Erft Verkehrs GmbH (REVG)’, based in Kerpen, the largest town in the district. Initially, nothing changed in the operation of the routes; the RVK continued to operate, but now ‘on behalf’ of REVG. The RVK was now to use buses in the Bergheim district in the REVG livery: instead of the cream with orange and later the white of the RVK, the coaches on the REVG routes were to wear its colours of old white with blue. Buses with this look are still in use today from other depots in the RVK transport area.
Since 1 January 2019, REVG has also owned its own buses, taking over the 46 bus routes in the district under its own management. RVK is no longer needed as a ‘contract operator’ – the buses from the Bergheim district are being redeployed to other depots (see above).
At the start, REVG has around 100 Scania (most of the vehicles) and Mercedes-Benz buses. Later, buses from MAN are also added.
Soon after REVG was founded, the district council decided that its transport company should go electric in future. A VDL Citea electric was trialled in spring 2020. However, its range is not (yet) convincing, and so the district council decides that battery buses are out of the question (for the time being).
So the decision was made to switch to buses with hydrogen fuel cells. After all, they also run on electricity, and there is a hydrogen filling station right on the doorstep of the depot in Kerpen: in Kerpen’s immediate neighbouring town of Hürth, which also belongs to the district, there is the ‘Chempark Hürth’. PVC is manufactured there, and hydrogen is produced in the process. This is actually an unwanted by-product, which is why for years it was cheerfully destroyed simply by flaring. Isn’t it great that this valuable raw material can now be used to power buses? Incidentally, REVG is planning to build up its own hydrogen supply.
The first two hydrogen buses were tested on REVG routes in spring 2021: one ‘Solaris Urbino 12 hydrogen’ and one ‘Van Hool New A 330 The first order for 26 ‘Urbino 12 hydrogen’ buses now goes to Solaris.
Delivery of these first REVG hydrogen buses is now beginning. The first two buses are due to arrive in Kerpen this year and the 24 others in 2025. They all have a fuel cell with an output of 70 kW and electricity is stored in ‘Solaris High Power Batteries’.
Solaris – which is part of the Spanish rail vehicle manufacturer CAF Group – is as confident as it is proud to emphasise that it is Europe’s largest manufacturer of hydrogen buses. Its biggest customer in Germany is Regionalverkehr Köln. It and its procurement partner WSW Wuppertal now operate around 80 fuel cell buses from Bolechowo. Other operators currently include In-der-City-Bus from Frankfurt and Stadtwerke Weimar. There are also private companies from Gross Zimmern (Winzenhöler) and Brunnthal in the Munich district (Geldhauser).
And a considerable number of new customers will be added shortly. For example
- Stadtwerke Aschaffenburg
- Ruhrbahn, Essen
- DVG, Duisburg
- SWK Stadtwerke Krefeld
- Riedwerke in Gross Gerau
- Regiobus in Güstrow
- OVAG, Gummersbach
- Hamburger Hochbahn, Hamburg
