First Bus Scotland awarded over £3million by Transport Scotland to upgrade mid-life fleet
First Bus has been awarded more than £3million as part of Transport Scotland’s Scottish Bus Emission Abatement Retrofit (BEAR) scheme following the announcement of the latest round of scheme funding. Stagecoach East Scotland has also been awarded £1.15million by Scottish Government to upgrade 63 buses.
The Scottish Government grant towards the overall cost means that 165 further buses will have exhaust systems changed to meet the current Euro VI standard to significantly improve emissions of nitrogen oxide (NOX) and fine particulate matter (PM2).
First Glasgow recently achieved 40 per cent of vehicles being Euro VI standard or better and its LEZ compliance plan envisages more than 60 per cent of vehicles reaching Euro VI standard once the 165-vehicle project is completed.
First Bus recently announced its commitment to operating a zero-emission bus fleet by 2035 as well as pledging not to purchase any new diesel buses after December 2022.
Andrew Jarvis, managing director for First Bus in Scotland, says: “Cleaner air is vitally important to all of us in society and we are determined to play our part in the communities that we serve.
“This is another step on our journey to operating a fully zero-emission fleet by 2035 and we are already leading the way with the first commercially-operated electric buses in Glasgow as well as the soon-to-launch world’s first double-decker hydrogen buses in Aberdeen.”
Stagecoach claims to be leading the deployment of cleaner technologies, including electric, hybrid electric and hydrogen-fuelled buses, saying it has invested more than £1billion in 7,000 new ‘greener’ vehicles in the past decade.