Mykolaiv received seven new trolleybuses and plans to purchase 20 more

Photo: Mykolaiv City Council Facebook page

Since the beginning of the full-scale invasion, the city of Mykolaiv has received seven new Ukrainian-made trolleybuses with loans from the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD). The units are being delivered under a contract signed in 2021, according to which the winner of the tender is to provide the city with 40 Dnipro T-203 trolleybuses manufactured by Pivdenmash. The city received 30 units of this order by February 2022.

• "After the beginning of active war actions and as the occupation forces came close to the city, the EBRD suspended funding for the project, and the delivery of the trolleybuses stopped. However, after numerous negotiations between the mayor and representatives of the bank and after the Ukrainian Armed Forces drove the occupiers away from the city and stopped shelling it with cannon artillery, the project was resumed," said Yurii Smetana, head of Mykolaivelectrotrans, in a comment to the NGO Vision Zero. 

The new trolleybuses are completely low-floor, equipped with modern electronics and air conditioning, which is very important in the hot Mykolaiv climate.

• "For such a southern city as Mykolaiv, it was a great help on hot summer days, and the citizens were really more willing to use the trolleybuses," comments Yurii Smetana. His words are based on facts, as the city has accurate data on passengers transported:

• "We have an electronic system for counting passenger traffic in each trolleybus, so we can see how many passengers we carry in trolleybuses every day," said the head of the company.

Mykolaiv is currently preparing the technical documentation for the next tender for the purchase of hybrid trolleybuses with an additional battery that will provide connections to remote urban areas. In its technical requirements, Mykolaivelectrotrans specifies a range of at least 20 kilometres and a 380-volt connection to allow charging not only from the overhead line but also at depots or at final stops.

According to the head of Mykolaivelectrotrans, the Mykolaiv City Council and Mayor Oleksandr Senkevych have been emphasising for many years that the main carrier in the city should be municipal transport, especially electric. That is why the city has signed an agreement with the EBRD to obtain a loan to modernise and upgrade the trolleybus fleet in Mykolaiv.

Note from the NGO Vision Zero: In 2023, an average of 30 trolleybuses are running on Mykolaiv's routes every day. About 90% of them are modern low-floor models. During the shelling of the city in 2022, 31 trolleybuses were damaged, including 18 new Dnipro trolleybuses. All the new trolleybuses have been restored and are now operating on the routes.

In 2019, Mykolaiv was the first city in Ukraine to develop and approve a Sustainable Urban Mobility Plan. The development of electric public transport is enshrined in the Plan as a key priority of the city in the field of urban mobility.