Athens introduces electric buses to its fleet

Athens, the capital of Greece, has a population of 600,000 people within the city limits and 3.6 million in the greater metropolitan area. Athens is affected by approximately 3 million trips per day, as people either commute to or pass through the city. Due to its central role and high density, the modal share for the Athens municipality is quite sustainable, with over half of all trips being made by walking and public transport. However, this is not the case for the Athens Metropolitan Region, where 54% of all trips are made by car or motorcycle.

Challenges

Athens combines a dominant car and motorcycle ownership culture with a developing public transport network (3 metro lines, 3 tram lines, and more than 250 bus lines) and so citizens are very reluctant in transitioning to public transport from private vehicles.
The city faces serious traffic congestion and degraded air quality issues, being at the bottom of the European air quality index ranking.
Almost zero rate of bus fleet renewal due to economic crisis over the past 12 years. As a result,
- (a) there are some bus reliability issues and
- (b) there is quite significant room for improvement in bus fleet emissions.
OASA S.A. (PT operator) and the City of Athens cannot always identify win-win solutions which causes delays in (effectively) addressing the city’s needs.

Use cases

OASA S.A. purchased a fleet of low-emission and fully electric buses. Athens focuses on:

the holistic integration of e-buses in its existing bus fleet and
the set-up of a chargers’ network.

E-buses will be launched during two phases, requiring for a set of short-term and long-term solutions. Phase 1, which is completed, includes 140 slow-charging buses (185 km range). Phase 2 includes 100 e-buses (buses will arrive during 2025) and 525 slow and fast-charging (buses will arrive in 2026-2027).

Role of your living lab in metaCCAZE

NTUA will develop state-of-art AI-based algorithms and OASA S.A. will implement them to 1) optimally define new time schedules and charging schedule for the incoming e-buses considering slow, and later, fast charging needs, 2) along with defining the chargers’ type, number, and location.

Based on co-creation tools developed in the Trailblazer Cities of metaCCAZE (Limassol), it is aimed to set-up the ground for constructive dialogues between the City of Athens and OASA S.A. to co-design the e-bus implementation and increase user acceptance. Infrastructural changes to support the new bus fleet include re-allocation of bus depot and several bus stops space to install and operate the chargers.

Living Lab partners

Contact

The Department of Transportation Planning and Engineering of the National Technical University of Athens (www.transport.ntua.gr) is a Center of Research and Innovation Excellence in Transportation, with global recognition [Ranked 4th in Europe, 26th worldwide (EduRank 2023) and 41st in Europe, 168th worldwide (Shanghai Ranking’s 2023)]. The Mission of the Department of Transportation Planning and Engineering is to educate scientists engineers and to promote science in the field of transportation planning and engineering. High scientific standards and performance are key objectives in all education and research activities of the Department of Transportation Planning and Engineering. The Vision of the NTUA Department of Transportation Planning and Engineering is a future with highly efficient, green and safe transport systems in Greece, in Europe and globally, through high level scientific research and technological development supporting evidence-based decision making in all aspects of all transport modes and types.

The Scope of the Department of Transportation Planning and Engineering comprises all transport modes (road, rail, water, air, combined), all transport types (people and goods, urban and interurban, national and international, terminals) and all phases of transportation projects (planning, design, tendering, construction, delivery for operation, operation, management, maintenance). A Team of 80+ Scientists: 5 Professors, 7 Professors Emeriti, 18 Senior Transportation Engineers and PostDoc, 33 PhD Candidates, 20 Transportation Engineers and other scientists.

NTUA is the Technical Coordinator of the project and the leader of WP2: MetaInnovate: open smart systems for connected, autonomous and electric zero emission shared mobility (M4 2024-M4 2027).

The main task of NTUA is to develop the MetaInnovations toolkit in order to offer technological and infrastructural solutions (flexibly adjustable, open, resilient and replicable) capable to combine: a) electrification, b) automation, and c) connectivity to enable the implementation of MetaDesigned ZEMS UCs and BIGMs. NTUA also has an important role in the overall monitoring, impact and transferability evaluation, and the lessons learned which are part of the WP4. Finally, NTUA contributes to WP1, with a responsibility to create and collect all information needed for the cities’ available data (Data Map).

The University of Malta (UOM) traces its origins to the founding of the Collegium Melitense by the Jesuits in 1592. The College was raised to University status by Grand Master Manoel Pinto de Fonseca in 1769. Situated at Msida, it is the highest teaching institution of the State by which it is mainly financed and is open to all those who have the requisite qualifications. Over the past few years, the University has reviewed its structures in order to be in line with the Bologna process. Conscious of its public role, the University strives to create courses which are relevant and timely in response to the national, regional and international needs. The supreme governing bodies of the University are the Council and the Senate.The University has been involved as coordinator and partner in numerous EU funded projects under various Programmes including FP5/6/7, Horizon 2020, Lifelong Learning Programme, Culture 2000, Tempus, Erasmus+, INTERREG EU-MED-ITALIA MALTA-ENPI CBC MED and various other international and national programmes and initiatives.

The University is also represented in a number of European and international University networks and groups. University of Malta (UM) is the sole public and highest teaching institution in Malta, with its structures being in line with the Bologna Process and the European Higher Education area. UM has a 400-year history and there are over 11,500 students including 1,000 foreign/exchange students from nearly 92 different countries, following full-time or part-time degree and diploma courses. Around 3,500 students graduate each year. UM is comprised of 14 Faculties and several other campuses: at Valletta, Marsaxlokk and Gozo. As of 2020, the UM employed a total of 2,848 employees including academics, administrative, technical and industrial staff (1,885 on a full-time basis and 963 on a part-time basis).

The Institute for Climate Change and Sustainable Development within the University of Malta supports the Follower Living Lab implementation in the islands of Malta. The Institute will support Malta Public Transport in the implementation of the on-demand electric autonomous bus service and seek to oversee the implementation of the metaCCAZE technological innovations following their trials in the leader cities. It will support the co-design activities, the user acceptance, the design of use cases and business innovation and governance models alongside the Ministry for Transport, Infrastructure and Planning. It will be responsible for the impact evaluation of the project as implemented in Malta.

TRT is an independent research and consulting firm specialised in transport and mobility planning, transport economics and modelling. The company’s headquarter is based in Milan with a branch office in Brussels. Established in 1992, TRT has earned a solid reputation in supporting public and private actors thanks to its professional and R&D activities in the fields of transport projects and policy assessment. TRT is, indeed, experienced in several and referenced professional services in the following main areas: strategic planning, urban mobility, research projects, feasibility studies, project assessment, transport demand analysis and forecast, logistics and freight transport, planning and regulating of public transport, energy and environment.

TRT has been active in research studies since its founding and has a long experience in participating to research programmes funded by the European Commission, from the fourth Framework Programme up to the new Horizon Europe. Research topics range from methodologies for the evaluation of transport projects, the development of innovative modelling tools, the analysis of energy efficiency of transport systems, the impact of new transport technologies, the promotion and evaluation of innovative mobility services (such as mobility as a service) and the mobility of women.

With reference to sustainable urban mobility, TRT has an extensive practice in providing guidance and support stakeholders from across CIVITAS initiatives. CIVITAS support action programmes foster knowledge transfer, dissemination of best practices and debate about innovative measures for sustainable urban mobility. Since 2008, TRT has been involved in different CIVITAS projects and currently in CIVITAS MUSE. Also, TRT is actively contributing to the EU Urban Mobility Observatory (former Eltis.org) and has participated in the drafting of both releases (2013 and 2019) of the European Guidelines for the drafting of SUMPs.

Role in metaCCAZE

In metaCCAZE, TRT is leader of WP1 that sets the ground by reviewing the current situation in the cities and defining the several activities that will help structuring the implementation of the trailblazer and follower cities as well as their cross-fertilisation. TRT will also design the standard impact evaluation framework that will be used by the cities to assess the efficiency and to ensure that their impacts align with the MISSION and SUMP/SULP targets.

In addition, TRT will prepare the “MetaPolicy Package” to contribute to updates of urban and transport policies and feed the strategic research and innovation agendas (SRIA) of CCAM, 2Zero, CIVITAS and other initiatives.

Krakow is the second largest city in Poland; the city hall hires approx. 3000 employees. The city has rich experience with EU co-financed projects, both investment and non-investment ones (total number of Kraków’s international partnership projects completed or in progress is 89) and continuously introduce activities to develop sustainable multimodal urban mobility.

On behalf of the City of Krakow the Public Transport Authority in Krakow (ZTP) will be involved in this project. It is a budgetary unit of the City of Krakow and might be seen as a municipal mobility agency. ZTP is responsible for the public transport organization in Krakow and neighbouring communes, the P+R, cycling and walking systems management, development of the paid parking zone in Krakow and the city information system as well as the sustainable mobility promotion. ZTP continuously increases its involvement in mobility management activities, multidisciplinary projects and new services for citizens to improve their life quality. One of newest project is to develop the Low Emission Zone (LEZ) in Krakow that aims on improvement of the air quality. The ZTP activities are implemented with the engagement of citizens, which allows to build the awareness of the need for changes and meet the stakeholder’s expectations. ZTP recently realised Interreg Central Europe projects – LOW-CARB (2017-2020) and Dynaxibility4CE (2020-2022), which allowed to gain new experience in the planning and implementation of low-carbon, active, sustainable mobility for functional urban areas. In previous years Krakow was involved also in other European mobility projects, including these co-financed by the EC Framework Programmes, e.g. CIVITAS CARAVEL (2005-2009), CIVITAS CATALIST (2007-2012), PARK4SUMP (2018-2022), HANDSHAKE (2018-2022).

ZTP is planning to launch an e-bike and e- cargo bike rental system at the newly built Kraków Grzegórzki station. The next level of the system will be the launch of an e-bike hub. The subject of the investment will be an e-bike and e-cargo bike station located within the transport hub at the SKA Grzegórzki station, serving as a transfer and reloading point. The implementation of the project will contribute to an improvement in the quality of services connected with the integration of the two complementary forms of ecological transport in Krakow. Improving the quality of service in terms of the use of modern, emission-free electric and e-cargo bicycles, increasing travel comfort and reducing travel time will contribute to an increase in the share of green transport.