New electric bus in the lobby. City: driver error

Ordinary bad luck or the announcement of major problems in the maintenance of new electric minibuses? A few days after the report was submitted from Tri-City, photos and recordings of a broken bus were released, which was officially scheduled to leave on September 5. GAiT drivers point to problems with the new fleet, but the city says it wasn’t a failure, and that driver error meant the bus had to be towed away.

Three new electric minibuses were introduced in Gdansk last week. Officially, the route of lines 100 and 195 was not scheduled to depart until September 5, but our readers found new buses on Tuesday, August 30.

And it was an unusual sight, because the bus broke down and was pulled over by a technical vehicle belonging to the Gdansk Buses and Trams.

After pictures and video of the car towing appeared Report from Tri-Citya GAiT driver contacted our editorial office.

– Buses were released before the premiere on line 195 – he tells us. – A complete defeat with them. The batteries on the bus were exhausted in the middle of the second shift, so the manufacturer may have exaggerated saying that the battery had a range of 200 km. A door on one bus malfunctioned, and the other got off. And that’s just two days of use. In addition, there are many passengers on line 195 during the school year. Previous Iveco buses were already cramped. The new buses are smaller and probably won’t fit all of them.

Unusual drag and extremely low suspension?

but that is not all. As our axles say, the new buses are not adapted to normal towing (hence the unusual view of the towed vehicle only on the rear axle) and do not have an air suspension, which can be raised in the event of a large number of passengers, which allows a safe and clutter-free trip Trouble, for example, through speed bumps.

Ultimately, the new Karsans is set to completely replace the existing Iveco Kapena minibuses in the next few years. There are also problems with them.

“Of all the Kapen devices in stock, three are broken and there aren’t enough people to fix them, so it’s unclear when they will return to linear motion.” Some time ago, one of the buses collided. Went for scrap because it turned out that there were no spare parts or body parts for it – our interlocutor adds.

City: It’s not a bus malfunction, it’s the driver’s fault

Malfunctions in new vehicles are not surprising. It happens not only on new buses, but also in regular cars that were bought and picked up moments before the showroom. In such cases, the insured vehicle is returned to the manufacturer, which is obliged to repair the malfunction at its own expense. This will also be the case here.

as he explains Paulina Chełmińska From the press office of the municipal office in Gdansk, the cause of the inconvenience was not a mechanical fault, but the driver’s fault in operating the car.

– Karsan electric buses are under warranty and due to yesterday’s events, they were subjected today to full diagnostics carried out by the supplier service, which showed that the bus is operating at full capacity. The cause of yesterday’s accident was an error in the operation of the car by the driver, which led to a decrease in the battery voltage. Drivers driving new electric cars, a first in the Gdansk fleet, have been trained to operate them, but these are the first days of new electric cars on Gdansk’s roads and the first days of drivers under their control. To date, the operation of vehicles by drivers has been carried out without interruption, and the above case was unique – Chelmska confirms.
At the same time, the city denies information from GAiT employees themselves that the new buses are not equipped to tow or carry passengers without fear of damaging the lowered suspension.

– According to the supplier’s assurances, the bus can be towed with either a cable or a locomotive, which is shown in the video. The bus’s independent mechanical suspension is adapted to the loads it is exposed to and can be driven over speed bumps without fear – this guarantees Chełmińska.
The new Karsan e-Jest minibuses were delivered by MMI from Zbyszewo. Gdańskie Autobusy i Tramwaje was paid by the contractor to deliver three minibuses with three chargers, a diagnostic computer and special tools for repairs and service 4.9 million PLN (1.6 million on average for one car).