Glasgow bus fleet to be 40% electric following £19.7 million new vehicle order
- First Glasgow appoints Alexander Dennis Ltd to supply 50 new electric buses for the city
This World Car Free Day (22nd September) First Glasgow announces that it has placed a £19.7m order of 50 electric buses with Scottish vehicle manufacturer Alexander Dennis Ltd in the latest step on its decarbonisation journey.
The new buses – which will save approximately 3,023 tonnes of CO2e per annum as they replace older diesel buses – will start to arrive in the city next year, with the full fleet of 50 expected to be in place by Spring 2024. Following the recent transformation of Caledonia depot into the UK’s largest EV charging hub, the arrival of these new buses will mean that 40% of First Glasgow’s fleet will be entirely electric.
Ahead of their arrival, work will begin on Glasgow’s Scotstoun depot in before the end of the year to install rapid charging points to support the new buses. Work to transform the depot into a second EV charging hub is expected to take 12 months.
The significant order has been supported by 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 incredibly proud of the rapid progress that we’ve made in Glasgow, and 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 in Glasgow is people’s decision to choose bus as their mode of transport. These state-of-the-art new EVs will offer a more pleasant journey to passengers, and we hope that they’ll encourage more people in the city 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 to transform our city’s congestion, air and noise pollution levels.”
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.
A TV ad featuring some recognisable Scottish faces discussing their guilty habits and biggest driving pet peeves in a ‘Car User Support Group’, returned to screens this month on 12th September.
More information about First Bus’ Modal Shift campaign can be found at firstbus.co.uk/carfree.
ENDS
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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.
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