Nobina makes major investment in 56 lightweight buses
Nobina is continuing to develop its fleet of buses and is investing in new lightweight buses to be put into service in Helsinki, where Nobina recently gained extended responsibility for parts of the city traffic. The company will invest in a total of 81 buses, of which 56 are lightweight buses, and these new buses will be put into service in the late summer of 2012.
At the end of 2011, Nobina Finland won the tendering procedure for operating 107 buses in the Helsinki area, representing an increase of 11 buses from Nobina’s current operations. As a result of the renewed and extended traffic contract in Helsinki, Nobina will purchase 81 new buses, of which 56 are lightweight buses from VDL Bus&Coach and 25 diesel buses from Volvo. The new buses will provide Nobina with the necessary conditions to operate environmentally friendly transport services, with low fuel consumption and limited carbon emissions. Several of the buses’ design elements allow for greater accessibility, simplicity and enhanced passenger comfort. The traffic contract is valid for a period of seven years, with services commencing in August 2012.
"This is an important traffic contract for us and is Nobina’s largest purchase of lightweight buses to date. We are purchasing a mix of buses that meets the high demands for environmental friendliness and comfort that are imposed on modern city bus services," says Lars Åkesson, Purchasing Manager at Nobina.
The traffic agreement regulates the requirements for the composition of the bus fleet, with a common solution being a combination of newly purchased buses and buses that have previously been used in the Nobina Group. For the Helsinki services, Nobina will primarily operate new buses, but will also make use of buses from its existing fleet of vehicles that will be upgraded to meet the requirements imposed.
Optimising the Nobina Group’s fleet of buses is a central tool in the company’s efficiency-enhancement efforts and is a key element for increasing the profitability of the contract.
"By regularly renewing our buses, we can offer greater comfort and more environmentally friendly travel, while with a continuously upgraded fleet we can operate efficient and price worthy transport services with low energy consumption at lower maintenance costs," says Ingrid Håkanson, Managing Director of Nobina Fleet.
For more information, please contact
Ingrid Håkanson, Managing Director of Nobina Fleet and IR Manager, e-mail: ingrid.hakanson@nobina.com, tel: +46 701871072
Lars Åkesson, Purchasing Manager, e-mail: lars.akesson@nobina.com, tel: +46 703490884
The Nobina Group is the largest bus passenger transport company in the Nordic region. The operations include contractual regional traffic in Sweden, Denmark, Norway and Finland as well as independently operated interregional traffic through Swebus. The Nobina group has annual sales in excess of SEK 6 billion, operates 3,500 buses and, with more than 260 million passenger journeys per year, is one of the major passenger transport companies in northern Europe. For more information, please visit www.nobina.com
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