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According to the company's strategy, all old diesel buses will be replaced with city buses using gas as fuel. According to Kalle Klandorf, chairman of the supervisory board of TLT, the decision to purchase only gas buses in the future is a step toward a more environmentally friendly city transport, the city government said.

"New gas buses will help to significantly reduce the cost price of the line kilometer, enable to use domestic biogas and have a significantly smaller ecological footprint than the current city buses," Klandorf said. "In addition, the decision will help to ensure that in the future, Tallinn could bear the title of the European Commission's European Green Capital."

The company will acquire altogether 60 normal-sized and 40 articulated buses in 2019, which make up more than a fifth of the 469 buses used by TLT. In addition, 200 more buses will be acquired over the next five years, with which the share of gas buses in the bus park will rise to over 60% by 2023. The exact cost of the first 100 buses will be determined with the procurement but is estimated to be 25 mln euros.

"With the new gas buses we will replace the oldest part of the bus park, with which we will make the company's bus park significantly more effective and passenger-friendly," Deniss Borodits, chairman of the management board of TLT, said. "In addition to the decrease in fuel expenses by more than 1.4 mln euros, we will also save more than 600,000 euros per year from repair costs."

After the end of the five-year investment program, all diesel buses from the rolling stock of TLT that do not meet the European Parliament's emission standards will have been replaced.

Tallinna Linnatranspordi AS manages 90% of the volume of Tallinn's public transport, servicing more than 142 mln passengers per year by bus, tram and trolleybus.