The series of electric buses manufactured by Bolloré, two of which recently burned in the streets of Paris, will not be put back into service until investigations have determined the origin of the damage, the general manager of Ile-de-France said on Monday May 9. -France Mobilités (IDFM), Laurent Probst.
Read alsoRATP in turmoil after a series of electric bus fires
“Much more disturbing»
“We have 10,500 buses and coaches in Ile-de-France. And there are some that burn almost every month“For many reasons, explained Laurent Probst to AFP. “At the first electric bus that burns, we say to ourselves: “You have to watch, you have to analyze, but it happens”. The second of the same series which burns in a few weeks, there it is much more worrying“, he underlined.
A Bluebus electric bus spectacularly caught fire in the 13th arrondissement of the capital on April 29. On April 4, a fire broke out on board a bus of the same series in the 5th arrondissement. After the second disaster, the RATP immediately withdrew, “as a precaution», the 149 electric buses in the series produced by Blue Solutions, a company of the Bolloré group – i.e. nearly a third of its electric bus fleet.
“Battery fault»
The first fire was caused bya fault in the battery“, noted Laurent Probst. “It is not yet known if it is this defect that caused the fire on the second bus“, he added, recalling that investigations are underway and that it is “still a little too earlyto draw conclusions.
The RATP, Bluebus and the Land Transport Accident Investigation Bureau (BEA-TT) have launched investigations. “It is when we have the results of these three surveys that we will make the decision to put the buses back into circulation.“, once any corrective measures have been applied, explained Laurent Probst.
Read alsoParis: RATP temporarily withdraws 149 electric buses from service after two fires in one month
“We had no problem with electric buses from other brands, we had no problem with the first series from Bolloré (which supplied a total of 250 electric buses to the RATP, editor’s note). We only worry about these 149 buses that we pulled out of circulation“, he noted. RATP and Bluebus declined to comment.