Kent County Council (KCC) and Go-Ahead London have formally signed a 15-year contract for operation of the Kent Thameside Fastrack network from November 2024.
Also confirmed is that 28 Irizar ie Tram battery-electric buses will be deployed between November this year and April 2025. News that Go-Ahead London had been awarded the contract broke in June 2023, with the operator saying then that it was “in talks” to deploy the ie Tram fleet.
VEV will provide charging infrastructure for the Irizars. 450kW pantograph—based units will be installed at two locations. VEV will also manage and maintain the charging provision, with the units requiring buses to be connected for “less than six minutes” to top-up. Opportunity charging will follow at the planned Fastrack Dover network, VEV says.
Arriva currently operates the Kent Thameside Fastrack services with diesel buses. KCC Cabinet Member for Highways and Transport Neil Baker comments that the local authority has adopted “the security of a 15-year contract” to help ensure that passengers “can be confident that this service is here to stay.”
Use of the ie Tram represents a second known order for the type in the UK, with Go-Ahead London having been debut customer here for the type when it reached agreement on a batch for Transport for London route 358.
Speaking about the Kent work, Go-Ahead London Managing Director David Cutts says: “We are delighted to welcome the Kent Fastrack network into our portfolio and intend to provide a high-quality user experience from a dedicated facility in Dartford.
“As the UK’s biggest and most innovative zero-emission bus operator, with around 535 electric vehicles in service across the capital, we look forward to applying over a decade’s decarbonisation expertise in Kent.”
KCC received £9.5 million from the fast-track mechanism of the first round of the Zero Emission Bus Regional Areas (ZEBRA) fund towards Fastrack electrification. That money will part-fund the 28 ie Trams for Thameside, and five for the Dover work.
The local authority said in its submission to ZEBRA that it expected to procure the 33 buses together and that it would own those vehicles. However, KCC has now confirmed that the five for Dover will be sourced separately.
