Environmentally Friendly Public Transport

Abstract

The article Environmentally Friendly Public Transport deals with the impact of public transport on the environment by selected types of vehicles. Nowadays, many public transport operators face the necessity to renew their vehicle fleets and consequently decide how to acquire the best vehicle fleet composition with the lowest costs. They need to be competitive with other operators as well as with personal car transport; they need to provide sufficient comfort to passengers, be environmentally friendly, and last but not least, they need to have low operating costs. The renewal of the vehicle fleet traditionally strains an operator's budget. A good decision for a suitable alternative of operated vehicles, or a decision for a suitable mixture of operated vehicles, may have a crucial impact on operating costs and thus affect financial support from their founders. New alternatives are available thanks to the development of new technologies – traditional diesel buses meeting the emission standards of EURO 6, CNG buses, electric buses, trolleybuses, trams, buses with hydrogen fuel cells, etc. The presented work is trying to find the answer to the question of which alternative is ideal for operators from a short-term, medium-term and long-term perspective. The article presents a comparison of economic indicators of the operation of individual alternatives, their impact on the environment and their performance.