BUS TRANSPORT

Compared to the other types of public transport the buses made their way in Sofia public transport much later.

The first bus line in Sofia was put into operation on April 20, 1935. Later on other six lines with total length of 23 km. were opened whereas the transport was operated by 10 "Prague" buses available. By 1940, 10 MAN and 6 Mercedes buses were delivered.

During World War 2 some of the buses were destroyed in the bombardments, others became out of use because of the lack of spare parts. In 1944, 1945, and 1946 there were 8 buses available for the public transport.

In 1949 the first "Hristo Michajlov" Bus Depot was built; its capacity was 60 cars. At that time other manufactured in Lvovski Automobile Zavod 15 LAZ buses were delivered.

In 1950 11-meter Skoda RTO cars were purchased from Czechoslovakia.

In January 1952 the Sofia Auto-transport Company was established. This company was tributary to Sofia Municipality. It managed the cargo transport (consisting predominantly of ZIS and ZIS-5 lorries), as well as the buses and taxis.

On June 22, 1959 the Sofia Auto-transport Company merged with Public Passenger Transport Company. On July 1, 1964 Sofia Auto-transport became an independent section of Branch-2 of the Public Passenger Transport Company.

In 1964 bus manufacturing was initiated at the Chavdar factory in the town of Botevgrad.

In 1968 the first articulated buses Ikarus 180 and Chavdar 14-20 were delivered. In 1974 the first 100 Ikarus 280 articulated buses were delivered from Hungary.

The public bus transport became more and more capable. Whereas in 1965 there were no articulated buses, at the beginning of 1988 there were 872 such buses. In 1969 the new type Chavdar 11 G5 buses became available from the Chavdar factory in Botevgrad.

A total of 919 articulated and 478 single buses had been delivered during the period 1980 - 1988. Those buses replaced old decommissioned buses.

On July 1, 1987 three independent bus transport enterprises were established: Bus transport division AP -1 Zemljane, AP-2 - Malashevtzi, and AP-3 - Drujba. In 1989 these enterprises were converted into municipal companies.

In 1990 another (fourth) municipal bus transport company was established - FAT-4 - Republika. At the beginning of 1993, all four municipal companies were consolidated into a newly established company - Sofia Public Transport Company EOOD.

During the last five years new modern buses were delivered:

	1996 - 30 articulated Chavdar 141 buses, manufactured in the town of Botevgrad. Those buses were supplied with MAN engines.

During the last 10 years the most of the obsolete Ikarus and Chavdar buses were replaced by second-hand Mercedes cars in very good condition. New buses were purchased in: - 1998 - 41 articulated Mercedes 345 and 21 MAN; - 1999 - 30 articulated MAN 262; - 2000 - 6 single Mercedes 0345.

Mercedes 0345 Bus

Mercedes 0305 Bus

On 19th of May 1998 SKGT - Auto-transport EAD was established; since 8th of December 1999 it became an independent joint-stock company.

In 2002 SKGT- Auto-transport AD operates 95 bus lines with total length of 1210 km. These lines are served by 573 buses, operated by 1062 drivers.

In 2006 Auto-transport  operates 94 bus lines with total length of 2380 km. These lines are served by 554 buses.

Four of the bus lines with total length of 37.25 km. are operated by private companies licensed under the terms of Public Commissions Procurement Act. These four lines are served by 16 buses.