Number of gas buses will almost double this year, as part of £20m investment
Nottingham City Transport (NCT) introduced the first of its 67 brand-new biogas double-decker buses due this year on Monday (15 April).
The first buses entered service on Brown Line 17 between Bulwell, City Hospital, Hucknall Road and the city centre and will be followed by Lilac 27, Purple 89 and Pink 28 by early summer.
Later in the year, five further routes will receive these biogas double-decker buses, increasing the total to 120 operating in the city by Christmas.
This £20m investment in 67 new biogas buses is supported by £1.12m of funding from the Office of Low Emission Vehicles, which is being used to expand the biomethane refuelling station at NCT’s main bus depot.
NCT is also continuing with a programme of retrofitting the Baumot exhaust treatment system to 180 diesel buses, which will reduce their emissions to the same Euro 6 levels as the new gas buses.
Anthony Carver-Smith, NCT Marketing Manager, says: “The arrival of a further 67 biogas double-deckers and the retrofitting of our younger diesel buses with exhaust treatment technology will see our entire fleet meet the stringent and cleanest Euro 6 emission standards within a year and demonstrates NCT’s commitment to improving air quality for everyone in the city.”
By the end of the year, the oldest bus in the fleet will be 2010 registered, with NCT’s average age one of the youngest in the UK, at less than five years old.
The prior 53 gas buses were rolled out in summer 2017 and April 2018.
