Tallinn City acquires further 30 trolleybuses from Skoda Group

Earlier this year, the city of Tallinn in Estonia ordered 40 electric trolleybuses from Skoda Group for use on public transport routes. Now, city authorities have confirmed they will purchase an additional 30 vehicles with delivery set for next year.

Image: Artem Efremenko / Tallinn City Government

It means that Tallinn City will have a total of 70 battery-electric trolleybuses at its disposal, following a contract agreed between AS Tallinna Linnatransport and Skoda. The purchase of the 30 additional trolleybuses is set to be part-financed by the European Modernisation Fund, which has put aside €12.1m for the purchase of 17 of the vehicles.

According to city officials, the new trolleybuses will begin arriving in Tallinn from May 2026 and will be introduced on route 72, a former trolleybus route which already has overhead power lines fitted. After that, some of them will also serve Tallinn’s busiest bus line, route 42, which will see the installation of additional infrastructure.

In January, Tallinn had already announced the purchase of 40 trolleybuses from the Skoda Group, with 22 eighteen-meter-long articulated buses and 18 twelve-meter-long standard buses being ordered. These 40 trolleybuses are to be used on lines 81, 83, 84, and 85. The tender was initially placed in early 2024. At the time, Tallinn’s Mayor Jevgeni Ossinovski said that it was part of a wider push to modernise the city’s entire trolleybus infrastructure. He said: “The acquisition of new trolleybuses is part of a broader vision focused on prioritizing public transport, into which we plan to invest more than €100 million in the coming years.”

Now, the Mayor has shared some further details on the new vehicles: “The new trolleybuses can travel at least 25km without an overhead contact line, which makes it possible to expand the network to areas without existing infrastructure. In the future, we will consider extending the trolleybus network to other districts, particularly towards Haabersti and Lasnamäe.”

Kristjan Järvan, deputy mayor of Transport, added: “Last year, we decided to fully switch to battery trolleybuses, which can operate partly without overhead lines and offer greater flexibility in route planning. Earlier this year, Tallinna Linnatransport signed a contract to purchase 40 battery trolleybuses. We are now taking the next step and using the purchase option to bring another 30 vehicles to city streets.”

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