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Stagecoach to invest £2.3m in new greener hybrid buses for Scotland

Posted: 2 December 2010 | Stagecoach Group | No comments yet

Stagecoach confirmed today that it is to invest around £2.3 million in a fleet of 17 state-of-the-art greener hybrid diesel electric buses for Scotland…

Stagecoach’s hybrid diesel electric bus

Stagecoach’s hybrid diesel electric buses have 30% less carbon emissions than standard vehicles, Photo Credit: www.stagecoachgroup.com

Stagecoach confirmed today that it is to invest around £2.3 million in a fleet of 17 state-of-the-art greener hybrid diesel electric buses for Scotland.

Stagecoach’s hybrid diesel electric bus

Stagecoach’s hybrid diesel electric buses have 30% less carbon emissions than standard vehicles, Photo Credit: www.stagecoachgroup.com

It follows the award of around £1.5m million in support funding from the Scottish Government’s Green Bus Fund, the largest successful bid.

The combined £3.8m investment will cement Stagecoach’s position as the UK’s leading operator of hybrid diesel electric buses, which have 30% less carbon emissions than standard vehicles.

Stagecoach is expecting the new vehicles to be delivered in late summer 2011 and the investment will involve:

  • Nine single-deck vehicles running on the flagship Stagecoach Goldline service 7 in Perth, which links Hillend and Scone. The service already offers leather seats, specially-trained drivers and service guarantees for passengers.
  • Eight single-deck hybrids operating on the X19 express service linking Easterhouse and Glasgow city centre

Market-leading British bus manufacturer Alexander Dennis and BAE Systems will provide the technology behind the new low carbon buses, which feature an innovative regenerative braking system. The E200H buses will be built at Alexander Dennis’s main manufacturing plant in Falkirk, Scotland.

Sam Greer, Regional Director of Stagecoach UK Bus, said: “These new low-carbon buses are great news for Scotland, particularly for passengers and the local environment in Perth and Glasgow. It is part of our commitment to offer greener, smarter, good value travel to our customers across the country.

“Buses already deliver a major carbon saving over using the car, but new technology is only part of the answer to the challenge of climate change. We also need better bus priority, improved bus speeds in our cities, and investment in park and ride if we are to maximise the potential of buses and make it more attractive for people to switch to public transport.”

The latest investment will mean around 120 hybrid electric vehicles costing a total of nearly £33 million are either in service or on order for Stagecoach bus networks across the UK.

Some 56 hybrid electric vehicles are already in operation on Stagecoach’s bus networks in Manchester and Oxford after the Perth-based transport group placed the UK’s biggest order for hybrid electric buses earlier this year. A further 47 vehicles are due to go into service in Sheffield and Newcastle by March 2012. The vehicles being introduced in England are part-funded through the Department for Transport’s Green Bus Fund.

Investment in greener buses is part of Stagecoach Group’s sustainability strategy to reduce further the carbon emissions from its transport operations in the UK and North America. Backed by an £11million investment programme, the Group is targeting an overall reduction of 8% in buildings CO2e emissions and a cut of 3% in annual fleet transport CO2e emissions by April 2014.

One of Stagecoach’s innovative environmental initiatives in Scotland is the award-winning Bio-bus project in Kilmarnock. Stagecoach runs a fleet of buses on 100% biofuel made from used cooking oil and other food industry by-products, all of which are from sustainable sources. Since its launch two years ago, the Bio-bus project has reduced CO2 emissions from the vehicles by 80%, saving 2450 tonnes of carbon, around 2 million passengers have used the service and more than 70tonnes of used cooking oil has been recycled.

Stagecoach Group is also working with our major public transport groups in the UK on a major campaign to encourage people to make less use of cars and switch to sustainable bus and coach travel instead. The Greener Journeys campaign is targeting one billion fewer car journeys over the next three years. The target could be achieved by switching one in 25 journeys by car to bus and coach, delivering a huge reduction in carbon emissions.

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