Bern’s buses soon to be powered by sewage gas

The Swiss capital’s fleet of 100 buses will soon be switching to sewage gas – a cheaper and cleaner alternative to petrol.

Construction work is underway on a pipeline to connect the Bern sewage works to the natural gas network, which will supply the city’s bus depot.

Bernmobil, which runs tram and bus services in the capital, expects the first 32 Volvo gas-powered buses to be delivered in May. As the rest of the fleet becomes obsolete, it will be replaced by the non-diesel models.

Basel, Geneva, Lucerne and Lausanne all have gas-run buses, but so far only Lucerne uses biogas from the sewage plant. Its system was the first of its kind in Switzerland and went into production in January 2005.

SwissInfo