The first three new trolleybuses of domestic production, which for a certain time can travel without a contact network like a bus, have arrived in Nikolaev.
This week, two more such passenger cars will arrive in the Ukrainian capital of shipbuilders. In total, within 13 months, the fleet of the tram and trolleybus depot of the Nikolaevelectrotrans enterprise will increase by 31 trolleybuses of the PTS series.
These cars are convenient because they can travel in the absence of electric current or outside the contact network for a distance of 20 kilometers. Such trolleybuses are manufactured in the workshops of the Brovary plant «Politechnoservice», which won the competition to supply the city with such a large number of electric vehicles.
Brovary 12.2-meter cars with a cabin for 33 seats have wide aisles and a spacious storage area opposite the doors. A total of 77 passengers can be transported here.. Passenger capacity is based on international standards in relation to the total usable area of the cabin.
To speed up the boarding and disembarkation of passengers by modern standards, this passenger car also has a knyling system — tilting the right side towards the pavement during a stop.. This makes it possible to further reduce the threshold of the low-floor trolleybus to the sidewalk curbs.
In transport mode, the height of the trolleybus floor from the road surface is 34 cm, and at a stop it decreases to 27 cm. If we consider that the height of standard curbs is 15 cm, then from the surface of the sidewalk to the threshold will be even less than the height of a standard smartphone — only 12 cm.
«These trolleybuses were received as part of an agreement between the city of Nikolaev and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development. The Danish government provided co-financing – 3.9 million euros. This is grant money, that is, it will not need to be returned,” said mayor Alexander Senkevich.
And although this is not a mainline, but an urban low-speed transport, the PTS trolleybus (PTS T12309) is quite fast for its 12 meters and 18-ton weight. It can travel at a speed of 65±5 km/h. In 20 seconds it reaches 45 km/h, which corresponds to world standards for such transport.
In terms of temperature comfort, there are three hot-air heaters for the cold season and two air conditioners for the summer season.
The Brovary plant uses Akia Ultra TB12 low-floor bodies from the Turkish company Ulaşım İç ve Dış Ticaret A.Ş, which meet all urban logistics standards — spacious, with a large glazing area, wide aisles and storage areas opposite the middle and rear doors.
According to preliminary plans, a larger number of these trolleybuses will operate on the line to the Korabelny district and to remote parts of the city, where the route should be continued outside the contact network, which will be facilitated by autonomous operation in battery bus mode. This will add at least 10 additional stops towards the residential and industrial areas of the regional center.
In general, 20-kilometer autonomous travel is not the limit. At the Brovary plant they assure that, according to the customer’s technical conditions, they can supply more powerful batteries and this will allow the electric bus to travel not 20, but 40 and even 50 kilometers.
Photo/video: Nikolaevelectrotrans