First hydrogen-powered bus to hit Prague streets this spring

The Prague Public Transit Company (DPP) will test a new hydrogen-powered bus in the Czech capital this spring.

Chief of DPP Petr Witowski confirmed that the bus will run on route number 170, which connects Jižní Město in the southeast of Prague to Barrandov in Prague 5. DPP had tentatively announced these plans in an earlier press release.

According to Witowski, the passenger-free test is to ensure the technical functionality of the new bus; the route was chosen for its considerable distance (40 kilometers) and hilly features. Prague’s first and only hydrogen-filling station is also based nearby.

DPP will use the Škoda H'CITY model, which was unveiled in late 2022, for the test. It features USB charging ports and air-conditioning. The goal of the project is to reduce the capital's dependence on diesel and reduce carbon emissions.

Praguers will need to wait a while for the new bus – testing is estimated to last between two and four years.

Prague has recently been striving to increase the environmental friendliness of its transport vehicles. At the beginning of 2022, DPP started operating its first electric bus, which runs on lines 124, 154, and 213. The city also got its first trolleybus in 50 years after the electric-powered vehicle began running between Palmovka and Čakovice in the north-northeast of the capital. 

Prague’s transport company has also begun construction of a trolleybus route that connects passengers between Václav Havel Airport and Nádraží Veleslavín.

On a national level, there have also been talks between Czech Foreign Minister Jan Lipavský and his German counterpart on establishing a hydrogen-powered bus route linking Prague and Dresden. However, no date for the bus’s introduction has yet been set.

With Czechia part of the top 10 emissions-producing countries in all of Europe, Prague hopes to spearhead the country’s efforts in reducing pollution.