Metro Mondego, which manages the ‘metrobus’ operation in the Coimbra Region, said today that it has activated the option to purchase five more articulated buses, in an investment of approximately €3.6 million.
In a press release sent today to the Lusa news agency, Metro Mondego, which serves Coimbra, Lousã and Miranda do Corvo, stated that it has decided to proceed with the option to purchase five more articulated buses, increasing the fleet from 35 to 40 electric vehicles.
The purchase option was foreseen in the tender signed in 2022 with Energia Fundamental, which won the tender for the fleet, for €32.9 million.
In June, the president of Metro Mondego, Leonel Serra, had already admitted the intention to activate the option to purchase five more buses foreseen in the contract signed with Energia Fundamental (representative of the Chinese company Zhongtong).
In September, the Government authorised an increase in investment in Metro Mondego aimed at acquiring five more vehicles.
In a press release, the public company said the decision follows the Council of Ministers' approval of the same investment, allowing it to secure 40 vehicles of the same type, with the same technical characteristics and maintenance needs.
For Metro Mondego, adding five vehicles with the same characteristics allows for "operational gains".
The fleet reinforcement "is based on the system's demand data and its growth trend, reflecting the success of passenger adoption of this sustainable mobility solution in the Coimbra region".
The investment is approximately €3.6 million, which includes the necessary works for the integration of the vehicles into the system, with maintenance integrated into the services contracted with the supplier, for a period of 15 years.
In June, Leonel Serra observed demand exceeding estimates, even though the system was not yet fully operational.
Since September, the ‘metrobus’ has served Coimbra-B and Praça da República, but the hospital line, which will serve the University Hospitals of Coimbra and the Pediatric Hospital, is still to be completed; the project should finish in the first quarter of 2027.
Shortly after operations began in Coimbra-B and Praça da República, the president of Metro Mondego revealed a new record for passengers transported: 27,594 people on 22 September.
Even without the full network, if the system recorded this many trips every day of the year, it would total about 10 million passengers annually, very close to the capacity the system is expected to reach at cruising speed with the full network (13 million).