Buses with hydrogen-based fuel cell technology were already in use in a few other places in the country, when TMB started passenger service of its eight vehicles from Portuguese manufacturer Caetano with fuel cells from joint venture partner Toyota Motor Europe in Barcelona in 2022. They are of the well-known ‘H2.City Gold’ type and mostly run on the X1 city centre line. TMB wants to significantly expand the fuel cell bus operation by purchasing a further 38 hydrogen buses – this time 36 rigid 12-metre and 2 articulated Urbino hydrogen buses from the Polish manufacturer Solaris. The first vehicles have been in regular service since the beginning of July 2024, and the entire series will gradually follow in the coming few months.
EMT Madrid, one of the largest municipal city bus operators in Europe with more than 2,100 buses in its fleet, is now also putting the first buses with this drive variant into service. Caetano has now delivered the first of a small series of ten buses to EMT, which initially wants to test the bus extensively. The 12-metre ‘H2.City Gold’ bus is equipped with fuel cells from joint venture partner Toyota Motor Europe with a nominal output of 70 kW. It has not yet been seen in regular service.
In July and August 2024, EMT tested the first Mercedes-Benz eCitaro G REX with a fuel cell range extender along the busy cross-city line 27.
EMT had already started service with a fuel cell bus more than 20 years ago, in 2003, as part of the EU-wide CUTE (Clean Urban Transport for Europe) project, but it only operated a few years and is now preserved in the EMT Museum – together with another hydrogen bus, manufactured by Castrosua and Irisbus, which barely got beyond test drives at the point of time.
In the greater Madrid area, the private company ALSA already started operation of a Caetano and two Solaris hydrogen buses more than two years ago following previous tests, which can be found in Torrejón de Ardóz on regular city bus services – we reported here:
https://www.urban-transport-magazine.com/en/the-overview-electric-buses-for-spain/
