The Turkish transport operator Istanbul Elektrik Tramvay ve Tünel Isletmeleri (IETT) and the Daimler subsidiary EvoBus GmbH have concluded another contract for the supply of 100 Mercedes-Benz CapaCity buses for the city of Istanbul. IETT had already ordered the first 50 CapaCity buses in mid-2007, and a further 100 buses soon followed during the current year. The most recently ordered buses will expand the fleet to 250 Mercedes-Benz CapaCity buses operating in the BRT system next year. Another 500 Mercedes-Benz Citaro solo and articulated buses are also in operation in the region.
The large-capacity Mercedes-Benz CapaCity buses produced in Mannheim operate on specially constructed bus tracks running from the suburb of Avcilar to the inner city of Istanbul. The BRT concept bgegun in 2007 has proved so popular with passengers that the originally 17-kilometre long route has meanwhile been extended to 29 kilometres. The introduction of the Mercedes-Benz CapaCity buses has significantly shortened daily journey times for many passengers, while noticeably relieving traffic congestion in the inner city. A journey that once took 1.5 hours has been shortened to 40 minutes. Today the BRT system carries 530,000 passengers on a daily basis, which means 70,000 to 80,000 fewer individual journeys in the dense traffic of this major Turkish city. Accordingly plans are now being made to extend the BRT line across the Bosporus, to the Asian side of the city.
“The mobility requirements of a metropolis such as Istanbul are enormous. Only an optimal combination between the infrastructure and the vehicle fleet is able to ensure maximum transport capacity, and the BRT system in Istanbul demonstrates this very well”, says Holger Suffel, Daimler Buses Vice President Sales, Service & Parts, adding: “We are therefore delighted that IETT has once again decided in our favour, and that 250 Mercedes-Benz CapaCity buses will be in operation on the roads of Istanbul in future.”
As a non rail-based, large-capacity vehicle, the CapaCity combines the typical advantages of a bus, for example great flexibility and outstanding economy, with the attributes of a tram. As a highly cost-effective solution thanks to its transport capacity of 193 passengers and low infrastructure costs, it is ideally suitable as a part of innovative BRT systems.
