The Tallinn City Government has announced it will proceed with a purchase option under a contract with AS Tallinna Linnatransport for 30 additional trolleybuses.
The buses will be acquired in part thanks to financing from the European Modernisation Fund, which has allocated 12.1 million EUR for the acquisition of 17 of the vehicles.
The option forms part of an earlier contract signed between AS Tallinna Linnatransport and Škoda Group for the delivery of up to 70 vehicles.
Initially, Škoda was set to provide 40 vehicles for use in the Estonian capital.
Tallinn Mayor, Jevgeni Ossinovski, said:The city’s rapid growth requires an increasingly dense and well-planned network of connections. The new trolleybuses can travel at least 25 kilometres without an overhead contact line, which makes it possible to expand the network to areas without existing infrastructure.
In the future, we will consider extending the trolleybus network to other districts, particularly towards Haabersti and Lasnamäe.
The new vehicles will be purchased in 2026 and are scheduled to arrive gradually into Tallinn starting in May, with initial trolleybus services set to resume on routes 81, 83, 84, and 85, which will be served by 18 standard and 22 articulated trolleybuses.
Deputy Mayor for Transport, Kristjan Järvan, said:Last year, we decided to fully switch to battery trolleybuses, which can operate partly without overhead lines and offer greater flexibility in route planning. Earlier this year, Tallinna Linnatransport signed a contract to purchase 40 battery trolleybuses.
We are now taking the next step and using the purchase option to bring another 30 vehicles to city streets.
The battery trolleybuses are planned to first be introduced on route 72, with the network’s second phase of expansion expected to see a number of the new vehicles enter service on route 42.
