Durbe's electric buses turn out so green that even students are turning blue

South Kurzeme municipality bought electric buses that turn out to be as effective as romance at Rose Square during a January storm - they look beautiful, but are practically unusable.

Driver Arturs Kuzmiņš reveals the brutal truth about the green transport: "For the money they paid buying it, it should be a luxury bus." But instead he drives something that more resembles a refrigerator on wheels. While the old 1999 Mercedes heated the cabin in five minutes, the new electric marvel drives the entire route like a mobile morgue.

Deputy Andrejs Radzevičs even personally checked the situation and found that students in the bus were freezing like penguins. Initially one and a half degrees in the cabin! Even Liepāja winters seem warm compared to this technological marvel. After 45 kilometers the battery was one-third empty, even though it promised a 200-kilometer range.

"Operation is also complicated by Latvian road conditions," the deputy explains. The manufacturers probably thought Latvia has the same roads as Switzerland and the same climate as Spain. Now Durbe children are learning not only mathematics, but also survival in extreme conditions. But at least - it's ecological!