site.btaSave Sofia Party Push Pays Off as Skoda Agrees 75 New Trolleybuses for Sofia

Save Sofia’s programme to renew Sofia’s public transport fleet was already delivering results, the party said on Friday. The comment followed a Skoda post earlier in the day saying it had signed a contract to supply 75 new low-floor trolleybuses for the Bulgarian capital.

Save Sofia said the contract covered 35 12-metre rigid trolleybuses and 40 articulated trolleybuses, all equipped with batteries enabling operation on sections without overhead wires. “This will allow the electrification of bus routes such as 78, 204 and 310, and the released articulated vehicles can be reassigned to other high-demand routes such as 73 and 604,” the party said.

According to Andrey Zografski, deputy chair of the Transport and Road Safety Committee in the Municipal Council, “the ball is now in the mayor’s court.” “To ensure the new vehicles begin arriving in Sofia within this term, it is crucial to secure the necessary funding,” Zografski said.

Earlier this year, once again at Save Sofia’s initiative, the Sofia Municipal Council instructed Mayor Vassil Terziev to prepare and submit for approval a loan to finance the purchase of more than 250 new public transport vehicles: 58 trams, 75 trolleybuses, and 120 buses. “This is a crucial step, as the fleet cannot be genuinely renewed without it,” the party said.

In autumn 2025, after a run of tram/trolleybus incidents, Terziev said electric transport needs infrastructure renovation as well as new rolling stock, adding the city was working to secure loans for new trolleybuses, trams and buses and noting the rolling stock in the transport system was valued at about BGN 1 billion.

During the May 2025 public transport strike, Save Sofia described the situation as a chance to “modernize public transport” and outlined a five-step plan that explicitly included buying new buses, trolleybuses and trams, more funding for tram-network repairs and dedicated corridors, and merging the transport companies into a single operator.

Save Sofia also recalled that public tenders had been launched for low-floor trams for routes 20, 21 and 22, as well as for the modernization of the oldest trams.