Skip to main content

UK Government funds cleaner, greener bus journeys

The UK Government has made US$39 million (£30 million) of funding available to bus operators and local authorities in England, enabling them to buy low emission buses and install chargepoints and other infrastructure. In total, the 13 successful bidders will be able to add 326 buses, including electric, hybrid, hydrogen and biomethane buses, to their fleets, and install more than US$9 million (£7 million) worth of infrastructure. Among the winners is Sheffield City Region, which has been awarded US$1.7 m
July 26, 2016 Read time: 2 mins
The UK Government has made US$39 million (£30 million) of funding available to bus operators and local authorities in England, enabling them to buy low emission buses and install chargepoints and other infrastructure. In total, the 13 successful bidders will be able to add 326 buses, including electric, hybrid, hydrogen and biomethane buses, to their fleets, and install more than US$9 million (£7 million) worth of infrastructure.

Among the winners is Sheffield City Region, which has been awarded US$1.7 million (£1.3 million for) 44 buses fitted with hybrid technology.

Other successful bidders include West Midlands Travel, which has been awarded more than US$4 million (£3 million) to fund 10 hybrid and 19 fully electric buses, and install electric charging facilities. Birmingham City Council and 1466 Transport for London have jointly won US$3.6 million (£2.8 million) for 42 state-of-the-art hydrogen fuel cell buses, while Merseytravel has received US$6.4 million (£4.9million) for a total of 72 biomethane, hybrid or electric buses and associated infrastructure. Nottingham City Transport has been awarded US$5.7 million (£4.4 million) for 53 biomethane buses and infrastructure.

The low emission bus scheme builds on the Green Bus Fund, which saw US$116 million (£89 million) of government funding put more than 1,200 green buses on England’s roads – representing four per cent of buses in service. The government has also invested more than US$34 million (£26 million) since 2013 to retrofit more than 2,000 buses in pollution hotspots with low emission technology.

Related Content

  • June 13, 2014
    Balfour Beatty consortium preferred bidder for Aberdeen road project
    The Connect Roads consortium, comprising Balfour Beatty, Carillion and Galliford Try, has been selected as preferred bidder for the design, build, finance and operate (DBFO) contract to deliver the Aberdeen Western Peripheral Route/Balmedie-Tipperty project for Transport Scotland in partnership with Aberdeen City and Aberdeenshire Councils. Balfour Beatty will invest up to US$34 million, which represents a one third share of the sponsor’s investment requirement, with Carillion and Galliford Try also inv
  • March 14, 2012
    39 million micro-hybrids by 2017
    Micro-hybrids will grow nearly eight-fold to 39 million vehicles in 2017 and create a $6.9 billion market for energy storage devices as the fuel-saving alternative technology finds ready adoption, driven by stricter emission standards.
  • May 28, 2014
    Smoothing out city freight movements
    David Crawford welcomes a national first. Urban freight movements, while commercially and socially vital, are a growing logistical headache for planners and people alike. Figures from France’s Lyon Laboratory of Transport Economics indicate that goods transport in major urban areas accounts for: 20% of traffic; 35% of CO2 emissions made by all urban trips; and 50% of the diesel used; while final km delivery runs account for 20% of the total cost of the transport chain.
  • June 25, 2018
    Cost benefit analysis ‘can’t be carried out with a cookbook’
    There is far more to working out the worth of a project than simply filling in a few headings on a spreadsheet. David Crawford surveys some recent thinking from the US and Canada. Cost benefit analysis (CBA) “can’t be carried out with a cookbook”, warns US analyst Professor Robert J Brent. “ You can’t just get out a spreadsheet and fill in the data for all the headings. Each transport CBA should have something that is distinctive, in terms of location (for example, for a rural area), types of user