A retrofit programme covering 5,000 buses in the 9,200-strong Transport for London (TfL) fleet has been approved.
The £86.1m cost represents an average of £17,220 per bus, and will bring them up to Euro 6 standards on nitrogen oxides (NOx) and particulate matter (PM).
The move comes as part of the proposed tightening of Low Emission Zone standards, and the introduction of an Ultra Low Emission Zone (ULEZ) in the capital’s centre from 2019.
Last week, Mayor Sadiq Khan set out in his draft Transport Strategy that by 2037, all 9,200 buses across London will be zero emission.
Major cuts
TfL says that the programme will cut emissions by up to 95% and by 2020 the entire London bus fleet will be Euro 6-equivalent.
Diesel Particulate filters will be installed alongside Selective Catalytic Reduction (SCR) equipment to reduce air pollution. Conversions will mainly be carried out at operators’ garages.
Operators will be able to select any of the five TfL-approved suppliers – named as Amminex, Baumot Twintec, Eminox, HJS and Proventia – to install the new exhaust systems.
The scheme will also create 40 apprentices, employed by the five suppliers to work across a range of areas, from installation and servicing to management.
New deliveries
Currently 700-800 new low-emission buses are being introduced to the fleet every year, with diesel-only buses being phased out.
From 2018, all new double-deckers will be hybrid, electric or hydrogen. In addition all buses within the ULEZ will be Euro 6 hybrid by 2019, and all single-deckers in the ULEZ will be zero emission at tailpipe by 2020, taking the number up to 300.
London already has the cleanest bus fleet of any major world city with a third of the fleet running on B20 biodiesel, 2,500 hybrid buses, 71 electric buses, and eight hydrogen fuel cell buses.
Earlier this year, the Mayor announced an inaugural Low Emission Bus Zone in Putney. This is the first of 12 to be introduced at air quality hotspots across London.
Only buses that meet the “toughest emission standards” will be permitted to run within the zones, which also have effective bus priority measures to keep bus delays to a minimum and reduce unnecessary pollution caused by sitting in traffic.
Leon Daniels, TfL’s Managing Director of Surface Transport, says: “Air pollution has reached unacceptable levels in London and we are doing everything we can to tackle the problem in one of the most ambitious programmes of its type.
“By retrofitting 5,000 buses – over half of our fleet – with the latest green engine technology, we will be able to reduce vehicle exhaust emissions significantly. “
We will continue to take action to ensure London’s bus fleet remains the greenest and cleanest of any major world city.”
Sadiq Khan says: “We know that pollution from our roads is a major contributor to London’s toxic air. That’s why we are working so hard to introduce new clean buses on our streets and why we are continually looking for innovative ways to clean up the most polluting buses.
“There’s no doubt that by cutting the emissions of more than half of the fleet by up to 95 per cent, this innovative retrofit programme is going to make a huge difference to Londoners.”
