First Bus Scotland commits £35 million to electric bus investment
- 74 new electric vehicles on route to Glasgow and Aberdeen
- Glasgow bus fleet soon to be 40% electric
- Aberdeen fleet set to be 50% emission free
This World Car Free Day (22nd September) First Bus Scotland announces that it has invested £35 million in 74 brand new electric buses and supporting infrastructure in the latest step on its decarbonisation journey.
The electric buses have been purchased for service in Glasgow and Aberdeen, with an order of 50 buses, worth £19.7 million, for Glasgow and 24 buses, worth £8.4 million, for Aberdeen.
The new vehicles, which will be built by Alexander Dennis Ltd and Yutong, will start to arrive in the cities next year. Ahead of their arrival, a further £2.1 million will be invested in Aberdeen’s King Street depot, and £4.8 million in Glasgow’s Scotstoun depot, to install rapid charging points to support the new fleets.
The work to transform the sites into state-of-the-art EV charging hubs is expected to take 12 months.
The arrival of these buses will mark an important milestone for the First Bus fleets in each city. Once in operation, Glasgow – which is home to the UK’s largest EV charging hub thanks to the transformation of its Caledonia depot – will have a fleet that is 40% electric. Meanwhile, Aberdeen will become 50% emission free, following the introduction of its hydrogen-powered fleet last year.
The 74 electric buses being introduced to the Scotstoun and Aberdeen will significantly reduce our overall tailpipe emissions. By replacing diesel buses, this order of 74 zero emissions buses will save approximately 4,474 tonnes of CO2e per annum between the two areas of operation –the equivalent of removing carbon emissions from 2,116 diesel cars currently on our roads each year.
First Bus’s significant investment has been supported by £18.6m from Transport Scotland through its Scottish Zero Emission Bus (ScotZEB) funding – a challenge fund to support the industry’s swift transition to zero emission vehicles and infrastructure.
Duncan Cameron, Managing Director at First Bus Scotland, said: “We’re proud of the progress that we’ve made across Scotland; these new buses will make a significant impact to our mission to be emission free by 2035.
“What we hope will make an even more sizeable impact on emissions and air quality, is people’s decision to choose bus as their preferred mode of transport. These state-of-the-art new EVs will provide a more pleasant journey for passengers, and we hope that they’ll encourage more people living in these cities to leave their cars behind in favour of bus travel.
“We recently launched our Modal Shift campaign to put across the message that, with just some small changes to our daily routines, together we have the opportunity transform our city’s congestion, air and noise pollution.”
The Modal Shift campaign supports First Bus’s efforts to provide environmentally conscious, cost-effective travel across Scotland. Through the campaign, First Bus is looking to encourage car users to tackle common pain points associated with car travel including pollution and excessive expenditure.
More information about First Bus’s Modal Shift campaign can be found at firstbus.co.uk/carfree.
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Media Enquiries
For further information, please contact Craig Dennett, PR Manager for First Bus Scotland, at craig.dennett@firstbus.co.uk
About First Bus
First Bus is one of the UK’s largest bus operators. Making journeys easier for our customers, we were the first national bus operator to accept contactless card payments across all of our services and our First Bus App is voted ‘best in class’ amongst UK bus operators. Our most recent investments are in new, state-of-the-art buses across our key networks.
We work proactively with our local authority partners, making a positive impact on air quality, tackling congestion and improving customer experience. We are focused on First Bus becoming a leader in the transition to a low-carbon future and are committed to operating a zero-emission bus fleet by 2035; we have pledged not to purchase any new diesel buses after December 2022. We also operate the Aircoach network in Ireland.
First Bus is a division of FirstGroup.
First Bus is an equal opportunity employer.
First Bus is an excellent place to work with opportunities for a rewarding career.
We are committed to equality of opportunity, diversity and inclusion. We believe diverse experiences and attitudes help us better understand the needs of our customers.
For more information on First Bus: news-scot.firstbus.co.uk