Bulgarian capital Sofia to get 28 trams from Basel
Bulgaria’s capital city Sofia is to acquire 28 trams from the Swiss city of Basel, the first to arrive in 2016, mayor Yordanka Fandukova said on January 20 2015.
The cost is three million Swiss francs (about 2.97 million euro), Fandukova told a news conference at the Bulgarian cabinet office on the Bulgarian-Swiss Co-operation Programme.
The money is coming partly through the co-operation programme, and from Sofia municipality and the electrical transport company.
The new trams will be green and will have a low floor in the middle, convenient for mothers with strollers and people with difficulties in movement.
The trams also have a system for automatically counting passengers. Other features enable saving of energy for heating, display the time remaining to the next destination, and reduce noise emissions.
Each railcar will have 57 seat and 158 standing places for passengers.
Delivery of the trams will take place during 2016 and 2017.
Sofia expects 80 new buses this year and work also was being done on the signing of a contract with the European Investment Bank that would enable the delivery of a further 100 buses, Fandukova said.
(Photo: Alfvanbeem)
