Like stories from other parts of the world, the condition of the trolleybus network in Bucharest, Romania started to look pretty bleak in the last decade. No new investments in the overhead wire infrastructure were made for 15 years, with the last modernization of a segment taking place in 2007 and the opening of a new one in 2008 as a part of the plan to reconnect the isolated subnetwork located in the south of the city (Berceni neighbourhood). The lack of maintenance, especially of vital parts like switches and crossings, made the operation of the trolleybus increasingly difficult, reducing the commercial speed and making trolleybuses less attractive to the public, compared to the parallel bus routes.
The condition of the trolleybus fleet deteriorated during the same period, with the vehicles from the oldest model Ikarus 415T (high floor) already reaching an age between 22 and 27 years, overpassing the operation expectancy. Many of the trolleybuses were withdrawn in the recent years, due to a failure of various equipment, with about 55 still being operational at the beginning of 2024. A more recent acquisition took place in 2007, when 100 full-low floor Irisbus Citelis trolleybuses arrived, but in recent years they were also affected by defects, with 2 units suffering total damage after catching fire.
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New trolleybuses from Solaris
To all this gloomy situation, a glimmer of hope appeared in February 2019, when finally, the City Hall organized a tender to acquire a batch of 100 trolleybuses equipped with auxiliary power unit that would allow them to operate partially off-wire. Unfortunately, things did not go smoothly. The initial tender was won by the consortium of Bozankaya Otomotiv Makina and Sileo GMBH. A contract was signed in March 2020, only to be terminated by the City Hall half a year later, as the producer failed to present in the required time a homologation certificate for the trolleybus model. After this setback, the City Hall was able to restart the tender in August 2022, and the winner was announced in December the same year: Solaris Bus & Coach sp. z o.o. with the model Trollino. This time the order proceeded successfully.