Skip to main content

London to have three more fully-electric bus routes

Transport for London (TfL) and the Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, have announced three more electric-only bus routes in the city on routes 46, 153 and 214, the latest in a series of measures to tackle London’s toxic air.
July 7, 2017 Read time: 2 mins

1466 Transport for London (TfL) and the Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, have announced three more electric-only bus routes in the city on routes 46, 153 and 214, the latest in a series of measures to tackle London’s toxic air. 
 
The 56 new buses to be used on the routes will be built in the UK in a partnership between British manufacturer ADL and Chinese company 5445 BYD and the routes will be fully electric by mid-2019.
 
London already has more than 2,500 hybrid electric buses running across the Capital.  The addition of these new fully electric buses will bring the total number of electric buses in London to over 170.  This includes route 360, which will convert to fully electric buses later this year, and routes 70 and C1 are set to follow in spring 2018.
 
The Mayor has also announced a new US$111.5 million (£86.1million) programme to cut harmful emissions from London’s existing bus fleet. Around 5,000 buses – more than half of the fleet – are set to be upgraded to meet the latest ultra-low Euro VI emissions standard, cutting pollution by up to 95 per cent. The Mayor also set out in his draft Transport Strategy that by 2037 at the latest, all 9,200 buses across London will be zero emission.
 
The electric routes are part of a major transformation the Mayor has asked TfL to deliver to reduce emissions from London’s bus fleet. Other innovative measures to clean up the capital’s bus fleet include the phasing out of diesel-only buses and a commitment to purchase only hybrid or zero-emission double-decker buses from 2018.

UTC

Related Content

  • February 1, 2012
    5,000-hour durability milestone for transit bus fuel cell system
    UTC Power, a United Technologies Corporation company, has announced one of its latest generation PureMotion Model 120 fuel cell powerplants for hybrid-electric transit buses has surpassed 5,000 operating hours in real-world service with its original cell stacks and no cell replacements.
  • December 1, 2015
    VW scandal prompts emissions testing debate
    In the wake of the VW scandal John Kendall looks at emissions testing on both sides of the Atlantic. Since the VW emissions story broke in September, emissions testing has come under greater scrutiny, and none more so than in Europe, where critics have long been highlighting the weaknesses of the testing system. Ironically, changes to the emissions testing process were already under review but the story has pushed it up the agenda.
  • December 16, 2013
    Smart phones offer smarter way to pay for travel
    David Crawford reviews developments in near field communications for mass transit payments. ‘A carefully-designed and well-implemented mobile near field communications (NFC) solutions can give passengers a compelling experience that will encourage them to make greater use of public transport.’ That was the confident conclusion of a recent joint White Paper drawn up by the International Association of Public Transport and the global mobile operators’ representative group GSMA.
  • November 15, 2017
    Greensboro Transit Authority lo debut Poterra electric bus fleet
    Manufacturer of zero-emission heavy-duty vehicles Proterra has announced that Greensboro Transit Authority (GTA) will purchase four of its electric buses this fall as part of a joint effort to minimize emissions, reduce traffic congestion and accelerate sustainable infrastructure development. The 40-foot Proterra buses will replace retiring fossil fuel buses and are designed with the intention of eliminating more than 1.2 million lbs of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Over their 12-year lifespan, the