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Government figures confirm Stagecoach leads the way on greener hybrid electric buses

Posted: 6 April 2011 | Stagecoach Group | No comments yet

Stagecoach Group is leading the way on investing in new greener buses using state-of-the-art hybrid electric technology…

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

Government figures published today (Wednesday 6 April) confirmed that Stagecoach Group is leading the way on investing in new greener buses using state-of-the-art hybrid electric technology.

Transport Minister Norman Baker is to visit Stagecoach’s operation in Oxford as the Department for Transport confirmed that a total of 542 vehicles have been bought through the Government’s Green Bus Fund in England. More than 20% of them have been purchased by Stagecoach – the biggest investment in low carbon buses outside London.

Also today, Stagecoach announced it is to spend a further £3.8million introducing an additional 20 Alexander Dennis Enviro 400 electric hybrid vehicles in Manchester, with a support package of £1.8million from the Green Bus Fund.

This latest order means that, in the past year, the Perth-based company has placed orders for 142 state-of-the-art hybrid electric vehicles, at a cost of £26.9million. The buses will to go into service across the country, delivering a 30% cut in carbon emissions compared to standard vehicles.

Stagecoach has committed to invest £23.5million in 123 of the new buses for England, with a further £11million of funding coming from the Green Bus Fund, cementing its place as the UK’s leading operator of hybrid diesel electric vehicles.

A total of 26 vehicles are now in operation in Oxford with a further 30 already serving passengers in Manchester. In addition, in October last year, Stagecoach announced an order for an additional 47 state-of-the-art vehicles, of which 26 will go into service in Newcastle and 21 will operate in Sheffield by March 2012.

Furthermore, in Scotland, Stagecoach has ordered 19 hybrid vehicles, at a cost of £3.4million, to go into service in Perth and Aberdeen, following an award of around £1.8million in support funding from the Scottish Government’s Green Bus Fund. The new Enviro 350 hybrid vehicles will also be manufactured by ADL and are expected to go into service in the summer of 2012.

Stagecoach UK Bus Managing Director Les Warneford said: “We are committed to investing in greener vehicles, and the Government’s Green Bus Fund has assisted us in being able to introduce 142 of the greenest buses available into our operations in England and Scotland.

“However, with the help of our local authority partners there are also other ways we can help make bus travel even more environmentally friendly. For example, bus priority measures in towns and cities are vital if we are to reduce the carbon emissions of vehicles and make bus travel a more attractive option for passengers.

“We provide good value, high-quality travel for our customers – by working together to make towns and cities more bus friendly, we can make our services even more reliable and punctual to encourage more people to use greener, smarter public transport.”

Stagecoach is taking a series of measures to reduce its carbon footprint as a business. The Group has launched a sustainability strategy and is investing £11million in a range of measures to meet its environmental targets. The Group is targeting an overall reduction of 8% in buildings CO2 emissions and a cut of 3% in annual fleet transport CO2e emissions by 2014. It follows a reduction in the carbon intensity of its UK businesses of 5.7% in the three years to 30 April 2009.

It is estimated the five-year programme, from 2009-10 to 2013-14, will save a total of nearly 150,000 tonnes of CO2e, with the Group’s annual emissions reduced by around 40,000 tonnes CO2e by April 2014.

Last year, Stagecoach Group was awarded the prestigious Carbon Trust Standard after taking action on climate change by measuring and reducing its carbon emissions. Stagecoach is the first Scottish-based transport group – and one of only two listed UK public transport operators – to have achieved the stretching carbon reduction benchmark. It covers all of the Group’s bus and rail operations in the UK.

For further information about Stagecoach bus services, visit www.stagecoachbus.com

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