On 12 May 2021, Regionalverkehr Köln (RVK) presented the first of a total of 15 new Mercedes-Benz Citaro buses using alternative fuel bio-methane at its depot in Euskirchen. For the first time, the delivery of new bio-methane buses also include six articulated buses.
The total number of bio-methane buses at RVK thus rises to 38 by the end of the year. The supplier of all these vehicles was and is Mercedes.
It is interesting to note that RVK relies on two very different systems for alternative propulsion. On the one hand, there are the hydrogen fuel cell buses from Van Hool (model: Van Hool New A 330 FC) and Solaris (model: Solaris Urbino 12 hydrogen). By the end of the year, there will be 45 of these buses allocated to the depots in Bergisch Gladbach, Hürth, Meckenheim and Wermelskirchen, relying on the supply of hydrogen by chemical industry in the neighbourhood for refuelling. And there will be 38 bio-methane buses by the end of the year. They will all be based at Euskirchen depot – and there are good reason for that, too, because the “organic share” of the alternative fuel bio-methane is to be contributed by agriculture, in the Euskirchen area. Bio-methane filling stations are also available in Euskirchen.
