Promoting electric public transport

Barnim Bus GmbH – Operator of ’s Oldest Operational Trolleybus System

Eberswalde, located in the federal state of , is situated approx. 50 kilo- Trolleybus in metres North-East of the German capital of Being Germany’s oldest trolley bus operator, . The county town of , counting the company draws on tradition and long- 40.000 inhabitants, is surrounded by wides- term expertise. Since 1940 the trolleybus is pread forest areas and has borne the name deeply ingrained and enjoys popularity and “forest town” since 19th century. acceptance among passengers. The town has developed its linear structure Since its start-up, the company has always along the in the past and there- been confronted with the linear and uncha- fore has no typical city centre. The advanta- racteristic structure of the city. Nonetheless geous location close to the Finow Canal also Barnim Bus GmbH took up the challenge fostered the economic development in the over the past decades and remained as the city and local area. At present Eberswalde is oldest trolley bus operators in Germany. characterized by the food industry, waggon Barnim Bus GmbH always put emphasis on construction, engine building, metal wor- the combination of this traditional public king, electrical engineering as well as wood transport system and modern, new techno- processing. logies. The vehicle fleet of 1993/94 already Many tourists also enjoy the beautiful lands- was one of Germanys first low-floor trolley- cape around Eberswalde in summer and visit bus fleet. The new vehicle fleet of 2010 con- popular attractions like the lift lock in Nie- sists of electric hybrid buses, equipped with derfinow, or the monastery in onboard-supercapacitors. Electric energy . required for acceleration or heating can be drawn out of the catenary or the onboard- supercapacitors.

This project is implemented through the CENTRAL EUROPE Programme co-financed by the ERDF

www.trolley-project.eu cy of a trolley bus system and make a clear Main activities in statement about the change from diesel buses to trolley buses. Optimising Energy use Companies being interested in installing Already using supercapacitors onboard, trolleybus technology will be able to use this the company wants to take a step further tool as basis of decision-making. by installing an energy-storage device in a substation. Braking energy for example will Reshaping Image be stored and released for other processes Trolleybuses have to struggle with a few such as acceleration or heating. In contrast prejudices like “obsolete, non-effi cient, infl e- to supercapacitors, the stored energy in the xible” among opinion leaders, politicians and substation is not bound to a specifi c vehicle passengers in Europe. and could release energy to all the vehicles In order to eliminate these prejudices and to at the same time. refresh the image of trolley buses, Barnim Bus GmbH will coordinate a joint promotion Increasing Effi ciency movie of the TROLLEY partners, which will With the aid of an analysis, the company will show the balancing act of this traditional, elaborate a matrix by scanning important well-established public transport system data, local structures and important factors. from the past incorporating combining brea- The matrix will clarify the economic effi cien- king innovations in the future.

City of Gdynia (PL)

University of Gdansk (PL)

Barnim Bus GmbH, Eberswalde (DE)

LVB, Leipzig (DE)

City of Brno (CZ)

Salzburg AG (AT)

TrolleyMotion (AT)

SZKT, Szeged (HU)

TEP S.p.A., Parma (IT) For further information contact: Mandy Kutzner Barnim Bus Company +49 3334 52 219 [email protected] www.bbg-eberswalde.de map by © (2010) data2map.at

www.trolley-project.eu