First Bus is investing 89 million GBP to procure 178 zero-emission buses and the corresponding charging infrastructure in four regions in the UK.
This investment is supported by 16 million GBP from the Department for Transport’s (DfT) Zero Emission Bus Regional Area (ZEBRA) scheme, which was secured in partnership with Local Authorities.
Alongside funding 178 new zero-emission vehicles, this will also enable four depot sites in Taunton, Weston-super-Mare, Basildon and Hengrove in Bristol to upgrade their power and infrastructure to pave the way for a fully electric fleet in coming years.
Thanks to this investment, First Bus will soon operate more than 800 zero-emission vehicles across 14 electrified depots in the UK.
The 178 new vehicles will be introduced in the following regions:
- Basildon depot in partnership with Essex County Council
- Weston-super-Mare depot in partnership with North Somerset Council
- Hengrove depot in partnership with West of England Combined Authority (WECA)
- Taunton depot in partnership with Somerset Council
Janette Bell, Managing Director for First Bus, said:Today marks a significant milestone as we invest further in our journey towards a zero-emission bus fleet across our UK operations. We’re delighted that customers will benefit from Government co-funding of these transformative projects. We’ve worked tirelessly alongside our Local Authority partners to get to this point and cannot wait to get these vehicles out into service for our customers.
This news follows the company’s Norwich depot becoming the first depot outside of London to run a zero-emission bus fleet. In addition, two further First Bus depots in York and Leicester are set to follow suit and roll out zero-emission bus networks by the end of the spring.
