Rome, September 5, 2018
Qbuzz, wholly owned by Busitalia (FS Italiane Group), was awarded the concession for public transport services in the Groningen-Drenthe area.
The Groningen-Drenthe area, located in the North-East of the country, is one of the widest in the Netherlands. Its surface is over 5.500 km2 (12% of the Netherlands) with one million inhabitants (6% of the Dutch population).
The awarding of the concession, which is worth around 100 million euro annually for a duration of 10 years (with a possible extension of 5 years), shows the high level of Qbuzz’s transport offering. Qbuzz already managed public services in the area.
The service will be further improved with a planned renewal of the fleet that will reach 400 buses, of which 160 electrical powered and 20 hydrogen powered, to run about 30 million bus/km annual. Qbuzz’s offering includes low-environmental impact buses as well as technological innovation for ticketing services and customer information.
Qbuzz is the third public transport operator in Netherlands. It manages public transport in areas of Utrecht and Groningen-Drenthe. From December 2018 onwards it will also cover the area of Drechtsteden, Alblasserwaard en Vijfheerenlanden (DAV), between Utrecht e Rotterdam. Qbuzz’s revenues were of about 200 million euro in 2017, running 614 buses and 26 tram, and transporting nearly 90 million passengers.
With the purchase of Qbuzz, Busitalia’s transport offering – with a revenue forecast for 2018 of more than 600 million euro and 650 million euro with the public transport in DAV – will reach 170 million bus/km annual, 4 million train/km, 36 thousand nautical miles with a 3.000 bus fleet, 45 train, 44 tram, 8 motor vessel.
Busitalia operates public transport services in Veneto, Tuscany, Umbria and Campania. In addition to the buses services, it operates tramline in Padua, the former Ferrovia Centrale Umbra (Umbrian Central Railway) line and the ferry boat on Trasimeno Lake. Busitalia Fast provides long haul bus connection in Italy and abroad.