The Scottish Government has awarded £6.2m through the fourth round of its Bus Emission Abatement Retrofit Fund (BEAR4). Fundings will go to 20 coach and bus operators to assist with upgrade work on the exhaust systems of 379 mid-life vehicles to achieve Euro VI standards and
The money represents an uplift from the £5.7m that was originally expected to be awarded via BEAR4. It takes to £18.6m the total allocated though the life of BEAR that will part-fund the retrofit of over 1,000 vehicles. They will all be used on routes within one of the cities in Scotland that are subject to the Scottish Government’s Low Emission Zone (LEZ) commitment, and/or one of the country’s Air Quality Management Areas.
First Aberdeen is the largest beneficiary of BEAR4. It will receive £2.14m towards the upgrade of 129 vehicles. Stagecoach East, at £1.11m for 74 and First Glasgow at £814,392 towards 49, complete the top three. At the other end of the scale, four operators will each receive £19,000 for one vehicle and three others will get up to £38,000 for two.
Says Minister for Transport Graeme Dey: “This additional funding to retrofit mid-life buses adds to the £12.4m we have invested through the BEAR programme in the previous three rounds, helping to support the delivery of Scotland’s LEZs.
“We all want our air quality to be the best in Europe, but for the oldest and youngest in our society and those with existing health conditions, air quality remains an issue. We will introduce LEZs in our four biggest cities next year and this fund will continue to help support our ambition to protect public health and improve our air quality.”
The full list of awards via the fourth round of BEAR is:
First Aberdeen: £2,144,012 towards 129 vehicles
Stagecoach East Scotland: £1,108,479 towards 74
First Glasgow: £814,392 towards 49
Stagecoach West Scotland: £538,489 towards 31
First Scotland East: £473,235 towards 28
Stagecoach Bluebird: £283,670 towards 20
Stagecoach Highlands: £232,016 towards 16
Milligans Coach Travel: £114,000 towards six
E&M Horsburgh: £76,000 towards four
AC Luxury Coaches, LA Travel, Prentice Westwood Coaches, Temporal Travel: Each £57,000 towards three
AAA Coaches and Moffat and Williamson: Each £38,000 towards two
Prentice Coaches: £35,707 towards two
Hairy Haggis Tours, MacPhails Coaches, Rockstar Party Bus and Wilsons of Rhu: Each £19,000 towards one.
