£25m is part of Clean Bus Technology Fund and will go to 20 local authorities; follows £40m in 2018
The government has awarded £25m to 20 English local authorities (LAs) to allow the retrofit of a further 1,817 buses to achieve Euro 6 emissions levels.
Part of the Clean Bus Technology Fund (CBTF), the money follows a grant of £40m made last year to the same number of LAs that is seeing the identical upgrade of 2,768 vehicles. Existing recipients were invited to apply to extend their projects earlier this year.
Notably, Transport Minister Jesse Norman says that the latest funding round “will help the sector work towards… a 100% low-emission bus fleet in England and Wales.”
Devolution still the way to go
London benefits most from the money, with £3m allocated to the upgrading of 500 vehicles there. The West Midlands and Coventry will receive a combined £5.5m to facilitate the treatment of 353 buses. Other areas that will also see treble-digit numbers of upgrades include Bristol, Liverpool, Manchester, Sheffield and West Yorkshire.
Many of the areas that will benefit from the latest CBTF grant have also received support for the introduction of zero-emission vehicles during 2019 via the Ultra-low Emission Bus (ULEB) scheme.
In making the CBTF announcement, Environment Minister Thérèse Coffey says that the government remains committed to a devolved approach to reducing emissions, despite criticism that this area-by-area method may lead to partial displacement of the problem rather than an outright tackling of it.
“LAs are the best placed to introduce systems that work for their areas, which is why we are working closely with them to ensure that they have the appropriate funding and support,” she says.
Complements EVs
In Manchester, the CBTF money complements plans for a £29m Clean Bus Fund to help operators to upgrade their fleets to Euro 6 standards. 70 zero-emission battery-electric buses will also enter service in Manchester thanks to the ULEB scheme.
That has led Mayor Andy Burnham to respond robustly to operators’ claims that a planned £100 charge to bring a non-compliant coach or bus into Manchester’s proposed Clean Air Zone as “simply misleading.”
