Councils share in £11m low emission bus funding

Local authorities and bus companies across England and Wales have been awarded a share of £11 million in funding from the Department for Transport for a number of low emission bus projects involving electric and gas buses.

York is among the cities to have been awarded clean bus funding. Picture: Richard Walker/ www.imagenorth.net

Projects in Bristol, York, Brighton, Surrey, Denbighshire and Wiltshire will share in the pot, which will contribute to 153 ‘cleaner’ buses and is the latest tranche of funding to be awarded as part of the government’s Low Emission Bus Scheme.

These join a host of other projects to have been funded through the initiative, including Birmingham city council, Sheffield combined authority, Nottingham city council and Transport for London — all of which were announced in July 2016.

Projects

Within the latest band of funding, projects to have been approved include £3.3 million for City of York council, to use 24 electric buses on park and ride services in the city. This will follow on from an ongoing trial of an electric double-decker bus routes throughout York, which began this month (see airqualitynews.com story).

The largest project to have been announced as part of the latest round of funding will see South Gloucestershire council awarded £4.8 million for 110 gas buses for services around Bristol. First West of England has also begun a trial of a double-decker bio-methane bus in the city as of this month (see airqualitynews.com story).

Surrey county council has been awarded £1.5 million for nine electric buses for use on park and ride services in Guildford alongside an award of £500,000 to Denbighshire council to employ four electric buses on services in mid-Denbighshire

The Big Lemon, Brighton’s bus operator, is to receive £500,000 to support the roll-out of three electric buses to be used in the Brighton area, and Go South Coast and Wiltshire county council will also receive £500,000 for three electric buses to be used on park and ride services around Salisbury.

Air Quality

Commenting on the initiative, Transport Minister Paul Maynard said: “Low emission buses are an important part of our plans to make motoring cleaner and improve air quality across the country.

“New greener buses will be more comfortable for passengers, they are cost efficient and are good for the environment.

“I am pleased to announce this latest group of successful bidders, which should make a real difference to air quality in towns and cities across the country.”

The government is planning to announce a second round of the Low emission bus scheme later this year.