New buses have been running on Bucharest’s streets for almost a month now. In this period, the local media has been reporting about several malfunctions encountered by the new buses, with the most recent one taking place on Friday morning, December 21, when the heating system of one of the buses malfunctioned, flooding the bus with near-boiling water.

Dozens of people were evacuated from the bus following this incident, which apparently occurred in one of the buses running on the 783 line, according to local Digi24, which also shared a video from the incident.

The local publication also reported that another bus, which was running on the 335 line, had a flat tire on Thursday evening, thus being forced to make an unexpected stop on the way. Meanwhile, Ciprian Ciucu, a member of Bucharest's General Council representing the opposition party PNL, shared on his Facebook page a video showing one of the new Otokar buses stopped in the middle of a boulevard on Friday, apparently due to yet another malfunction.

The local media has previously reported about technical malfunctions at the new buses. For example, in early December, one of the drivers struggled for several minutes to close the door of his cabin. When he finally managed to close the door, the driver realized that the door wouldn’t open anymore.

Bucharest mayor Gabriela Firea signed in June the contract for the 400 Euro 6 buses to be delivered by Turkish company Otokar Otomotiv. The first 100 buses will arrive to the capital by the end of this year, the mayor said, adding that the rest will be delivered by end-2019. The value of the transaction is of EUR 100 million plus VAT.

Irina Marica, irina.marica@romania-insider.com

(photo source: Facebook / Primaria Municipiului Bucuresti)