Battery-electric double-deck buses will enter squadron service in the Liverpool City Region soon after the first of more than 100 of those vehicles were delivered on 25 February.
Driver training will start shortly ahead of the vehicles commencing revenue service in the coming weeks and months, the Liverpool City Region Combined Authority (LCRCA) says. It has bought the buses, which are Alexander Dennis Enviro400EV and Wrightbus StreetDeck Electroliner types.
The first StreetDeck Electroliners have been pictured at the Stagecoach Merseyside depot at Gillmoss in north Liverpool, where installation of charging infrastructure for battery-electric buses is underway. They have glazed staircases and camera monitoring systems.
Construction of both the StreetDeck Electroliners and the Enviro400EVs began some time ago. An Enviro400EV was present at a recent Alexander Dennis event with Stagecoach legal lettering and a 25-plate registration mark.
Although hydrogen fuel cell-electric double-decks have operated in the Liverpool City Region, the Enviro400EVs and StreetDeck Electroliners will be the first battery-electric examples to join fleets based there. The 20 hydrogen buses will be converted to battery-electric by original builder Alexander Dennis.
Arrival of the opening battery-electrics precedes the start of franchised bus services in the region. The first contracts for that network were recently awarded ahead of mobilisation in the second half of 2026, although Gillmoss is not part of that first tranche.
LCRCA says it will invest “hundreds of millions of pounds” in the area’s bus network over coming years. Mayor Steve Rotheram aspires for the region to be net-zero carbon by 2035 and zero-emission buses are an important part of that, he notes.
Papers from an LCRCA Overview and Scrutiny Committee meeting on 22 October 2025 noted that 108 battery-electric buses were then on order for delivery in early 2026.
The Combined Authority was awarded £9.4 million from the second round of the Zero Emission Bus Regional Areas scheme towards 58 of those vehicles for operation from what is currently the Stagecoach depot in Gillmoss. £26.1 million of City Region Sustainable Transport Settlement money was later put to 50 more such buses.
