Eleventh-hour orders with ULEBS funding have secured new electric buses for municipal fleets in Cardiff and Newport. Rhodri Clark reports
The 36 Yutong vehicles will account for 24% of the municipal operator’s fleet
Cardiff Bus has placed what it believes is the largest single order for electric buses outside London, enabling it to claim funding awarded by the Department for Transport in February 2019. The 36 Yutong vehicles will account for 24% of the municipal operator’s fleet when they are all in service later this year.
In another development, fellow Welsh municipal Newport Transport has ordered a further 16 electric buses after the DfT agreed to reallocate £2.8m of Ultra-Low Emission Bus Scheme (ULEBS) funding which was originally awarded to Stagecoach for electric buses in Caerphilly.
When Covid-19 struck last spring, Stagecoach was preparing to order the Caerphilly buses using its own money to cover most of the cost. Stagecoach was unable to proceed because of the pandemic and financial uncertainty. It appeared that the ULEBS funding would be lost to Wales, where operators had not received any earlier grants for low-emission buses.
The deadline for ordering buses and infrastructure, without foregoing ULEBS grants, was March 31. Operators had a further 12 months to commission the vehicles and equipment.
For contractual reasons, Cardiff Bus was unable to confirm until last week that it had placed orders before the deadline. This is the full quantity of vehicles envisaged in the operator’s ULEBS bid, for which the DfT awarded £5.4m for vehicles and £341,000 for infrastructure.
The grant will cover less than half of the total capital cost. A Cardiff Bus spokesperson told Passenger Transport: “The project is circa £14m covering vehicles, infrastructure and associated costs and is a collaboration between our shareholder, Cardiff Council, Department for Transport and ourselves.”
Cardiff Bus managing director Paul Dyer said: “This investment will play a huge role in not just keeping our city moving, but doing so in a green and environmentally sustainable way.
This is the start of our fleet modernisation plans and investment plans for the future, to make the company the most admired bus company in Wales and an asset to the city
“This is the start of our fleet modernisation plans and investment plans for the future, to make the company the most admired bus company in Wales and an asset to the city. Furthermore, it also shows that our stakeholders see us as a critical part of the future and we have their support.”
Ian Downie, head of Yutong Bus at Pelican Engineering, said: “These state-of-the-art, zero emission vehicles will make a significant impact on transporting the citizens of Cardiff in enhanced comfort whilst improving air quality.”
Cardiff Bus is also in the process of retrofitting 20 Euro V-standard buses to bring them up to the Euro VI emissions standard. From the end of 2021, 63% of the operator’s service will utilise either Euro VI or electric buses.
In 2019, Newport Transport was awarded ULEBS funding for just one electric bus and associated infrastructure. After further discussions with the DfT and a £2m loan from the Welsh Government, it ordered 16 Yutong electric buses, all of which are in service. This was possible because power specialist Zenobe covered the capital costs of the vehicles’ batteries and the new charging infrastructure, with the operator leasing those assets.
The DfT agreed to divert the money earmarked for Caerphilly to enable Newport Transport to order 16 more buses, a mixture of Yutong E10 and E12. They are all due to enter service this year. One in three of the operator’s buses will then be electric.
Managing director Scott Pearson commented: “The progress we are making in Newport with the delivery of electric zero-emission buses gives our customers a defined choice, to aid the environment by making the switch to public transport.”
This article appears alongside further coverage in the latest issue of Passenger Transport.
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