Buses in Malmö

Malmö City Buses

Mercedes Benz Citaro G operating on Line 2
Service area	Malmö Municipality
Routes	16
Operator	Nobina on behalf of Skånetrafiken

The Malmö city bus network serves the city of Malmö, Sweden, and its surrounding area with 16 routes. City buses have operated in Malmö since 1927, supplementing and eventually supplanting the city's tram network. Buses continue to serve as the primary means of transport within the city, despite an expansion of intracity train services during the 2010s.

The system is part of the Skånetrafiken transit authority, which contracts Nobina to provide drivers and vehicles.^[1]

History

City buses in Malmö were originally operated by City of Malmö's Tramways (MSS), who acquired their first bus in 1927.^{[citation needed]} With the closure of the last sections of tram network in the early 1970s, responsibility for and operation of city buses were moved to the municipal agency Malmö Lokaltrafik (ML). In 1993 the right-wing municipal government sold ML to Linjebuss, which was then contracted by Länstrafiken Malmöhus to operate city bus services.^[2] When Skånetrafiken was formed from the traffic operators of Malmöhus and Kristianstad counties following their mergers into Skåne County, city buses in Malmö became part of Skånetrafiken, with the "ML Green" becoming the colour of city buses throughout Skåne.

On 9 December 2018 the first fully electric buses began operating services in Malmö, when Line 7 received new battery-powered vehicles.^[3] In 2021 electric service was further expanded, with larger battery-powered buses being introduced on more lines. Skånetrafiken has set a goal for every bus in Malmö to be electric by 2030.^[4]

Routes

Skånetrafiken also operate some specialised routes within Malmö. On days where Malmö FF are playing home games buses are operated as number 84 to Stadion from Klagshamn, Segevång, Riseberga, Nydala and Västra hamnen. A bus service within the Skåne University Hospital area in Malmö is also operated as number 99.

MalmöExpressen

MalmöExpressen (MEX) is the name used by Skånetrafiken for bus rapid transit services within Malmö. Currently two lines, 5 and 8, are operated as MalmöExpressen, with another three (2, 4 and 10) planned to be converted to an MEX standard.^[6] The MalmöExpressen is operated with gas-electric hybrid buses on Line 5 and fully electric buses on Line 8.^[7][8]

MalmöExpressen Line 5 was the first BRT line to be introduced in Sweden when the first regular service ran on 1 June 2014.^[9][10] Line 5 was originally intended as a stop-gap measure, with the busways built enabling a construction of the future tramway being planned at the time.^[11] However, political issues resulted in these plans being shelved.

References