Over 230 of West Yorkshire’s buses will have emission-reducing clean technology fitted after approval at West Yorkshire Combined Authority meeting on Thursday (10 May).
The Combined Authority and Leeds City Council have secured £4.21m from the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs’ (DEFRA) Clean Bus Technology Fund, and more than £500,000 from bus operators.
The scheme is set to remove 31 tonnes – the weight of around 19 cars – of harmful nitrogen oxides from buses per year, and deliver £3.9 million in reduced environmental and health damage costs over a five-year period.
Cllr Keith Wakefield, Chair of the West Yorkshire Combined Authority’s Transport Committee says: “As a result of successful bids and contributions by bus operators, we have the opportunity to invest £4.75 million in making the air that people across West Yorkshire are breathing, cleaner.
“This is in addition to the £23.5 million-plus that Arriva Yorkshire, First West Yorkshire and Transdev have invested in new, low-emission vehicles over the past 18 months in line with their Bus18 initiative pledge to reduce harmful emissions.”
The scheme will see the equipment fitted to around quarter of the county’s bus fleet.
