There are three new electric school buses purchased by the Municipality of Ferrara as part of the “Re-Bus Project: Ferrara for Responsible and Sustainable Mobility”, which from next September will strengthen the school transport service in the municipal area, in the name of attention to the environment and the school catchment area of the hamlets. The new vehicles were presented today, Friday 3 May in Piazza Castello, in Ferrara.
The meeting with journalists was attended by the Mayor of Ferrara and the municipal councilor for public education with the owner of the company La Valle Trasporti, contractor of the school bus service, Mimma La Valle, the representatives of the company supplying the vehicles: the sales manager of Maresca and Fiorentino spa Paolo Negroni and the technician of the Bus Workshop Alessandro Vecchietti.
From September 2024, the municipal administration of Ferrara will add three new electric school buses, totally green, to the current school transport lines, which were purchased as a sign of attention to the environment and the school.
The project, entitled “RE-Bus: Ferrara for responsible and sustainable mobility”, was conceived and presented by the municipal administration, following a proposal from the councilor for public education and with the support of the La Valle company (current manager of the school transport in the Municipality of Ferrara) to the tender for sustainable school transport of the Ministry of Ecological Transition. The proposal ranked second nationally for the relationship between the number of students involved and the resulting environmental impact.
The development of the project also saw the involvement of the comprehensive schools: “Govoni”, “Alda Costa”, “Don Milani” and “Manzi”.
For this reason, the Municipality of Ferrara obtained a significant loan of 757,925 euros from the Ministry, which allowed the purchase of three new electric school buses, with the aim of strengthening the school service in the hamlets. A further 115,000 euros were allocated by the Municipality, for a total investment of approximately 873,000 thousand euros.
The 100% electric traction school buses will enter service from September 2024 with the start of the 2024/2025 school year.
The lines that will be activated on the basis of requests for registration for the 2024/25 school transport service (with a call for tenders starting in the next few weeks) will be three and will be able to count on a school bus with 41 seats and two others with 31 seats each, for a total of 103 seats for students. The three vehicles will be available to the various schools in the municipal area, for the transport of both primary and lower secondary school students. They can also be used outside of line timetables, to connect swimming pools and gyms and educational visits, in favor of reducing emissions due to fossil fuels.
A charging station will also be installed with the possibility of sequential charging of three vehicles and a dedicated application will be implemented that will allow families to track their children’s routes in real time.
The electric school buses were set up on IVECO A50 “POP” SM and IVECO 70 INDCAR “MOBI” SM chassis and have a range of approximately 150 km. The supplier company is Maresca e Fiorentino (awarder of the contract and Iveco bus concessionaire for Emilia Romagna, Marche, Tuscany, Umbria and San Marino).
The general objective of the project for Ferrara is to take a further step forward in promoting sustainability and offering efficient services for families, with particular attention towards the hamlets, for their greater connection to the city, and towards those schools in the center not yet served by the service.
