Alexander Dennis has announced the entry of 24 Enviro400EV battery-electric double-deckers into service for Reading Buses.
Set to be used on Reading’s flagship routes purple 17 and claret 21; the buses were funded by the second round of the UK Government’s Zero-Emission Regional Bus Areas scheme (ZEBRA 2), in partnership with Reading Borough Council.
The launch of the vehicles was celebrated at a special ceremony that took place at Reading Buses’ Great Knollys Street depot on 5th February.
Each bus has been given unique ‘ZEBRA’ livery, with branding reading Zero Emission Buses for the Reading Area’ and a second finished in ‘warming stripes’ that show how Berkshire’s average temperatures have risen over the last two centuries – a climate change visualisation developed by the University of Reading.
All 24 vehicles are fitted with the heavy-duty variant of the Driventic Vehicle Electrical Drive System (VEDS), with high-performance batteries storing up to 472kWh of energy and allowing a vehicle on a full charge to operate all day. Additionally, 13 new fast chargers have been fitted at Reading Buses’ Great Knollys Street depot, each capable of charging two buses at once.
Bus interiors have been highly specified with social seating, LED mood lighting, high-back seats with USB chargers, café-style flooring, a glazed staircase and rooflights, two wheelchair bays, and audio-visual next-stop information.
The vehicles are the first batch of electric double-deckers to enter service with Reading Buses, with the previous purple 17 route run with Alexander Dennis Enviro400CBG biogas double-deckers, which are being cascaded to other routes and replacing existing diesel buses.
A further eight Alexander Dennis Enviro400EV double-deckers are on order for Reading Buses, to go into service on the yellow 26 route in the near future.
Mark Taylor, Sales Manager for Alexander Dennis, said:We are delighted to see these fantastic buses finally enter service in Reading. Reading Buses has an enviable reputation as an operator, especially in terms of their standards of customer experience, and over the years they have often been the springboard for Alexander Dennis’s next-generation vehicles.
We’ve very proud to work so closely with them, and excited to receive feedback on the buses’ performance in service, which I’m sure will be exceptional.
