„Driver, turn on the AC - we're roasting!" It's a line you hear on Skopje's buses more often than „next stop" once summer hits. Temperatures push past 30 degrees and people ride inside tin ovens with little windows that don't open. A resident of Volkovo who commutes daily on line 22 summed up the experience: „This isn't public transport, this is a catastrophe with no precedent."

The answer he got from a private bus driver on the same line is one for the ages: „You want AC? Well, there isn't any! And do you know how many people ride for free and dodge the fare?" The logic that air conditioning is a reward for a paid ticket, not a basic condition for moving human beings around in June. From the public transport company, the official line: the AC kicks in „according to the technical capabilities of each vehicle," some buses have „fully functional systems," and the faulty ones „are being serviced." The people roasting on line 22 are free to figure out which category they're riding in.

Behind the boiling bus stands cold bureaucracy

The real story is why the new buses aren't there. The 2021 election promise was 250 eco-buses. So far, the fleet has been refreshed by exactly six new vehicles - a donation from the EU. In the meantime, two tenders in a row collapsed for the purchase of 150 electric buses and 75 chargers, a deal worth over 50 million euros excluding VAT, of which 100 buses are for Skopje and 50 for other cities.

The first tender fell through in 2025 - the only bidder failed to meet the conditions. The second, launched on 30 March this year, ended even more absurdly: three bidders were disqualified, leaving only Hungary's „Elektrobus-Ikarus" - and then the State Public Procurement Appeals Commission annulled the entire tender at the end of May. The reason? The contract with the subcontractor EVN for the 75 chargers was missing an electronic signature. „We thought this wasn't a substantive problem, especially since the contract exists and was signed by hand, but, well, EVN didn't sign it," the Transport Ministry explains.

Fifty million euros, 150 buses and an entire summer - sunk over an electronic signature. Minister Aleksandar Nikoloski concluded that „the excessive bureaucratization the law imposes has to change." The man on line 22 might add that accountability for who failed to check one signature before an entire tender got signed off - also has to land somewhere.

Third attempt, new deadlines

The third tender was launched on 28 May. If it works this time, the first 30 buses would arrive by December 2026, with the full delivery by early 2028. Mayor Orce Gjorgjievski, who in April was promising that „the chaos with public transport will normalize once the 100 new buses arrive," now says: „I was deeply hit when I heard the tender had failed. But the Ministry immediately launched a new call and I hope this time it will succeed."

The mayor hopes, the minister hopes, and the commuter from Volkovo hopes too - except he's hoping while standing, packed in with a ticket in hand, at over 30 degrees. Six buses in five years out of the promised 250: that's the speed we're driving toward „normalization." Until the third tender, the AC on Skopje's transport is regulated by one thing only - the sun.