116 and 117 to be reinstated on 7 April

Rome's transport company ATAC is to reinstate two of the four electric bus routes that it suspended without advance warning on 31 March.

The two bus lines being reinstated on Monday 7 April are the 116, which operates between the Janiculum and Villa Borghese via the historic centre, and the 117 which moves between S. Giovanni and Piazza del Popolo via Monti.

The other two buses, the 119 which operates in the historic centre around Piazza di Spagna, and the 125 which serves Trastevere, remain suspended indefinitely.

The Muoversi a Roma website provides a list of alternative transport to cover the electric buses' routes through the city centre's winding streets, unnavigable by larger buses.

Rome newspaper Il Messaggero reported that the suspension of the electric buses is over a disagreement between ATAC and Tecnobus – the company that services the vehicles – over which of them is responsible for replacing the batteries whose untimely deterioration comes just three years into a five-year contract.

Out of the fleet of 60 electric buses, which cost €200,000 each and were paid for with European funds, only 26 were running at the start of March according to Il Messaggero.