Local authorities are being invited to bid for up to £50M to help pay for a brand new fleet of electric buses. This initiative is part of a wider £170M funding allocation to make bus journeys greener around the country.
 
Transport Secretary Grant Shapps said that a town with 200 electric buses could save around 7400t of carbon dioxide each year, the equivalent to taking 3700 diesel cars off the road.
 
“Buses carry more people than any other form of public transport in the UK,” he said. “It is clear they have a crucial role to play in bringing down emissions.
 
“But Britain’s first all-electric bus town is just the start. This £170M package will help us to create communities which are cleaner, easier to get around and more environmentally friendly, speeding up journeys and making them more reliable.”
 
Campaign for Better Transport’s chief executive Darren Shirley welcomed the funding and said that, while buses are relied upon my millions of people, they have been sidelined by governments for too long.
 
The Local Government Association’s transport spokesman Darren Rodwell described the funding boost for buses as a step in the right direction.
 
But he added: “We would urge the Government to go further in the forthcoming Budget, and plug the £700M annual funding gap councils face in providing the concessionary fares scheme, which would help to protect local routes and reverse the decline in bus services.”

Also this week the Government has promised £5Bn to overhaul bus services and cycle links for every region outside of London. The plan includes the introduction of 4000 new zero emission buses, more ‘turn up and go’ services and a promise to simplify fares.

For cycling, around 400km of new segregated cycle routes and safer junctions are promised for towns and cities across England. In addition dozens of new ‘Mini-Holland’ schemes will be taken forward to make cycling safer in urban areas.

CIHT welcomed the promise of greater spending for local sustainable transport and active travel. Chief executive Sue Percy added: “We believe that identifying how cross departmental funding will be used to support the switch to sustainable and active travel is vital for its delivery.”

But Labour’s Shadow Transport Secretary Andy McDonald said: “After years of under
investment and cuts, this unambitious announcement is nowhere near enough to make the difference that transport users, our economy or our environment need.”

(Photograph: Department for Transport)