The government has now released details of how the Ultra-Low Emission Bus (ULEB) scheme will work.
It will see local authorities in England and Wales bid for a share of a £48m fund aimed at supporting the extra costs of the vehicles and, where necessary, infrastructure.
Announced last week by Transport Minister Nusrat Ghani [routeone/News/28 March], it is part of a wider £100m scheme announced in November 2016 to support low-emission buses (LEBs), with retrofit programmes.
Now, the government has released details of exactly how the new scheme will work, the timelines and defines what an ULEB.
Financial details
It follows a £41.5m LEB scheme that opened in March 2015. The winners were announced in July 2016 and August 2017. In total 479 buses are being part-funded.
The winning bids were for hydrogen fuel cell, hybrid, electric, and biomethane powered buses, for Birmingham, Brighton, Bristol, Denbighshire, Harrogate, Kingston upon Thames, Merseyside, London, Milton Keynes, Nottingham, Nottinghamshire, Reading, Sheffield, Wiltshire, West Yorkshire and York.
In many cases details of the buses have yet to be finalised and firm orders placed.
The same will be true of the ULEB scheme as it covers three financial years: 2018/19, 2019/20 and 2020/21. Organisation can submit bids for up to three years of funding. In theory, the last buses could come into service on 31 March 2022.
Criteria
Bids will only be accepted for new ULEBs. Bids for coaches or minibuses will not be accepted; nor will bids for retro-fitted buses. And, buses must be used on local services. Infrastructure-only bids are also eligible for funding.
The Low Carbon Vehicle Partnership (LowCVP) has developed a new ULEB definition and test process.
It is now “more representative of real world conditions” and remains in line with changes being made by Transport for London (TfL) to its bus test procedure.
This ensures “there is one test for the industry to conduct and test data remains comparable.”
The LowCVP has adjusted the test phase order and warm-up cycle, which had been identified as potentially giving artificially low NOx emissions in the outer and inner London phases due to high speeds of the rural phase.
The Outer London phase is now used for the warm up (previously rural) and the high-speed rural phase is performed last (previously first) in the test phase order.
There is no minimum size for bids and organisations may submit more than one bid. If the bid is over £7m, they must submit a separate bid demonstrating that the project can be scaled back to £7m. “This is designed to encourage a wide range of bidders to come forward and to ensure that the DfT is able to fund as many bids as possible,” says the DfT . 

Electric ‘better’
The DfT will contribute up to 50% (or up to 75% where the bus can operate in zero emission mode – i.e. electric or hydrogen) of the cost difference between the ULEB and the standard conventional diesel equivalent of the same total passenger capacity.
For infrastructure, it will contribute up to 75% of the capital expenditure and will reward bids asking for less funding 

To qualify as a ULEB under the new LowCVP testing criteria, buses must achieve a 30% greenhouse gas saving in comparison with a standard Euro 6 diesel bus. 

Grant funding will only be awarded subject to proof of a ULEB certificate, which means manufacturers will need to put them through the new ULEB test.
Due to the short timescales, The DfT will “consider bids based on vehicles currently certified as LEB, if they have manufacturer assurance that the vehicles are likely to pass the new ULEB testing procedure. “
The DfT warns that bidders “should be aware that bids for micro-hybrid (‘efficient diesel’) buses are unlikely to be awarded funding.
“We believe that the cost difference between these vehicles and equivalent conventional diesels is sufficiently small that the Government does not need to make funding available to support their purchase.”
It adds that the ULEB scheme is “a technology-neutral outcomes focussed programme and so gas buses are eligible if they meet the tougher assessment criteria.” 

A three-year minimum warranty will be required on all buses with an option to extend this to five years.
Warranties for infrastructure will also be “viewed favourably, especially where bidders fund this themselves.” In some instances, i.e. buses requiring gas-refuelling systems, a warranty can provide reassurance where problems occur, minimise disruption and help maintain an efficient service to passengers, says the government.
The announcement has been long-awaited and keenly anticipated. Now, operators and local authorities have until 30 June to submit their bids.
The DfT says it “aims to let bidders know whether they have been successful by the end of September” but cautions that the “exact timing” of the announcement will depend on EC clearance under state aid rules – which all previous scheme including the Green Bus Funds, had to win.
The funding is welcome, but naturally requires operators to be investing in new buses, plus a bit extra for the non-grant funded portion, for ULEBs.
With the bus industry facing tough times thanks to a raft of external factors – economic and political – investment capital is being squeezed harder.
Find out more: Scheme details are here
