eKapija learns: GSP Beograd one step away from announcing tender for purchase of 60 trolleybuses

GSP Beograd is busy preparing the technical documentation necessary for announcing a tender for the purchase of 60 single trolleybuses, vehicles that will have extended autonomy, i.e. which will be able to drive without an overhead network on part of the route (more than 20 km), eKapija learns.

The procurement will, as we were told, be organized according to the financial leasing model. But, precisely because of this, it remains to be seen whether GSP will be able to implement it on its own or whether the state will have to come to the rescue. Because, let us remind, the last few vehicle procurement procedures for GSP Belgrade, which were implemented according to this model, did not end well, as they were suspended.

The estimated value of this planned purchase is not yet known, but when it comes to the type of trolleybuses that will be ordered, the value of such a vehicle, depending on the model and manufacturer, ranges between EUR 600,000 and 750,000.

If this purchase is successful, it will be the first purchase of single trolleybuses after those from Belarus were purchased 16 years ago (when 83 of them were purchased), while the most recent articulated ones arrived almost a quarter of a century ago.

Most recent (unsuccessful) purchase four years ago

However, the story of the purchase of new trolleybuses has been going on for much longer. The purchase of these new vehicles was considered during the mayoral term of the current Minister of Finance, Sinisa Mali. During his mandate, the authorities deliberated whether to go for the purchase of trolleybuses or to buy electric buses in order to remove the “ugly” trolleybus network from the city center. Then, as today, the figure ranged up to a maximum of 80 vehicles. Mali’s mandate in Belgrade has since ended, but Belgraders have not seen a single new trolleybus on the streets.

In the following years, there was talk from the City about purchasing new trolleybuses, but by then it was already clear that of all the types of subsystems in public transport, they were the city government’s lowest priority, and one of the justifications was that they were expensive, especially if autonomous ones were to be purchased. In any case, the first tender for new trolleybuses, for 80 of them, was finally announced during the time of the city duo Zoran Radojicic-Goran Vesic, in February 2022, and according to the delivery schedule, the plan was that all 80, if the tender was successful, would be delivered in 2026. However, it soon turned out that the tender was unsuccessful, due to the offered price being higher than the city’s planned allocation for these purposes.

The current mayor soon took over the city government, focusing on changing the fare collection policy, new (repeatedly disputed by the professional community) public-private partnership agreements for the bus subsystem, and (equally controversial) procurement of buses and trams. The procurement of new trolleybuses was occasionally mentioned, but nothing that would amount to anything serious.

Electric buses, trolleybuses, private companies, offers...

In the past two years, this story has been getting new chapters on several occasions, in the sense that perhaps the state, within the framework of the EXPO project, and not the city, will acquire new trolleybuses and electric buses. On the other hand, less than two years ago, the city adopted a controversial decision to adopt a self-initiative PPP proposal to replace the trolleybus subsystem with electric buses, in such a way that the private partner (Strela) would be awarded this job for 20 years with the transfer of the Dorcol facility. In other words, this decision, which is officially still in force, opened the door to the complete abolition of the trolleybus subsystem.

In the meantime, however, this story went more in the direction that the new electric vehicles would be acquired within the framework of the EXPO project, i.e. that the state, and not the city, would do this. According to unofficial information from that period, the plan was to purchase 60 modern single and 20 articulated trolleybuses, as well as 20 electric buses, for the needs of the largest city transport company, as part of the Leap into the Future - Serbia 2027 project. However, no concrete steps were taken, especially when it comes to the actual announcement of the procurement.

Among the more concrete steps, it is worth recalling that last year’s presentation of trams and trolleybuses, which was held by the Skoda company to representatives of the Ministry of Finance and GSP Beograd at the end of the summer, should be highlighted. The most valuable information after that meeting was that GSP representatives were assured that the trolleybus subsystem would remain in operation in Belgrade, that it would not be abolished, but, on the contrary, that there would be additional investments in it.

A few weeks earlier, representatives of the Chinese bus manufacturer Higer and the supercapacitor manufacturer Aowei, as well as DAT Holding and Charriot, held a presentation of trolleybuses at the Belgrade Trade Fair, not of existing vehicles but of prototype trolleybuses that they plan to start producing if Belgrade decides to purchase them.

Dejan Aleksic

JKP GSP Beograd

Ministarstvo finansija Republike Srbije

DAT HOLDING DOO BEOGRAD

Vratimo trolu 28

Higer RS Gornji Milanovac

ASP Strela doo Obrenovac

GSP Beograd

Ministry of Finance

Škoda

Higer

Aowei

DAT Holding

Charriot

ASP Strela

Siniša Mali

Goran Vesić

Zoran Radojičić

purchase of new trolleybuses for GSP Beograd