Prague, Jan 14 (CTK) – The Prague Public Transport Company (DPP) will start using a Mercedes-Benz Capacity L bus, which is the longest in Europe with 21 metres, on a line connecting the city with the Ruzyne international airport on its northwestern outskirts, daily Mlada fronta Dnes (MfD) writes yesterday.
As from the second week of February, the bus will shuttle between the metro A line Veleslavin station and the airport, a route used by most passengers going to or from the airport. It will complement the present buses on the line 119.
The test operation of the bus has been initiated by the Cesky aeroholding company with the aim to try a bus with a capacity higher than the currently DPP-used articulated buses.
The new bus has a capacity of 191 people.
The local length limit for mono-articulated buses is 18.75 metres, which the new bus exceeds by more than two metres.
That is why its producer has been granted an exemption from the relevant law, MfD writes.
Prague needs a higher-capacity bus because the number of passengers at the Ruzyne airport started rising again in 2014 and 2015.
In addition, a number of new regular long-distance flights will connect Prague and China, and Prague and North America this year, while the Emirates carrier will start using Airbus A380, the world’s biggest transport aircraft, on its line to Prague, the paper writes.
Apart from the Mercedes Benz, DPP will also test another high-capacity bus, a bi-articulated 24-metre-long bus from another producer, on the line to the airport, MfD writes.
The two new buses may reinforce the 119 bus line until the city puts a planned railway to the airport into operation. Afterwards, similar long buses may be introduced on other lines, the paper says, citing Filip Drapal, from the ROPID company that cooperates with DPP on shaping public transport in Prague.
