Decarbonisation marches on, and it is important that the industry feeds a good cross section of views into ZECT and to DfT
The horrific events in Ukraine are really outlining what is important in life and could easily make less immediate issues feel unimportant and take a back seat.
But just as we did with the global pandemic, we still have to strive to focus on our day job of moving people from A to B in a sustainable manner.
Near the top of that list was decarbonising the industry. So the great news is that the latest rounds of ‘green bus funding’ around the UK are adding 1,843 zero-emission buses to the UK national fleet. This is good progress and the industry should applaud itself for embracing this (still relatively new) technology and greening the fleet faster than any other road transport type.
We shouldn’t forget to applaud the various governments around the UK which are also committing serious amounts of money to make this possible. It would be so easy for them to acquiesce to the vast budgetary pressures that they have in other treasury lines.
The Confederation of Passenger Transport’s (CPT’s) Zero Emission Coach Taskforce (ZECT) is making good headway in examining the issues that the coach industry faces in decarbonising the fleet, and the Department for Transport (DfT) has issued a call for evidence so that it can set an end date for the sale of new non-zero-emission coaches.
I would urge you to turn your mind to this and feed into ZECT and direct to DfT; it is important that a good cross section of views is gathered.
Given these huge commitments that we are making, we need to find a way to effectively communicate them to our customers and stakeholders. I always rankle when the pro-car lobby tries to focus on individual vehicle emissions and individual freedom. We really ought to be focusing on ‘person’ emissions.
Divide the bus emissions by the number of people on board, and the bus is actually emitting around 1/30th of what a car emits… and that’s a diesel bus. Once you introduce a zero-emission bus into the equation, those per-person emissions plummet for people using the bus.
As elections are fast approaching, we will come under fire because we don’t conform to what current likes or dislikes dictate.
I would urge you to step up and make the case for coach and bus. Our businesses, our employees and our customers do not live in five-year cycles, we live and plan for the long term. Every new coach and bus bought is a 15-year commitment and that is quite a statement of intent.
I believe that the public will buy into that commitment more readily than some sudden noise every five years.
