City to benefit from fleet of hydrogen-fuelled buses

BIRMINGHAM is to benefit from a fleet of new buses powered by hydrogen in the battle against pollution.

The greener and cheaper buses will be introduced thanks to a £13.4 million scheme.

Council bosses are set to approve the pilot project to buy 22 zero-emission buses, costing £500,000 each, to run on key routes throughout the city.

It is the latest measure to help combat Birmingham’s dangerous levels of nitrogen dioxide, which lead to as many as 900 premature deaths every year.

The buses will be paid for jointly by the Office for Low Emission Vehicles, the Fuel Cells and Hydrogen Joint Undertaking, the Greater Birmingham and Solihull Local Enterprise Partnership (£2,156,000), and the yet to be appointed bus operator through a lease agreement. The move will see the development of a refuelling station at the new Tyseley Energy Park. The buses should be running by March 2019.

Councillor Lisa Trickett, Labour cabinet member responsible for air quality, said: “Air pollution is a major public health issuing affecting us all. We are clear that every single person in Birmingham has the right to clean air.

“While we recognise that we face a significant challenge in meeting air quality compliance standards in the city, the introduction of hydrogenfuelled buses as part of this pilot is a hugely positive step forward in supporting the work we are doing towards achieving that.”

Hydrogen fuel cell buses are currently running in London and Aberdeen.