City’s fleet of electric buses set to double as £2.8m is diverted
THE number of electric buses in Newport is set to double this year, after an attempt to introduce similar vehicles to Caerphilly was scuppered by the Covid-19 pandemic.
Newport is the only place in Wales with a fleet of battery-powered buses. It introduced 16 Chinese-built electric buses in 2019 and last year, after being awarded Department for Transport funding in 2019.
The DfT also earmarked £2.8m for Stagecoach to introduce 16 electric buses in Caerphilly, to convert 11 local bus services from diesel to electric operation, but Covid-19 intervened just as the company was about to place the order.
Stagecoach recently confirmed that it would not be progressing the Caerphilly project at the current time, due to the impact of the pandemic and funding uncertainty.
There were fears in the bus industry that Wales – which lags far behind the rest of the UK in phasing out diesel buses – would forego the muchneeded funding.
However, the DfT has agreed that council-owned Newport Transport can use the £2.8m, originally awarded for Caerphilly, as part-funding for a new order for 16 electric buses.
Newport’s total fleet of 32 electric buses will represent a £15m investment in vehicles and infrastructure.
Some of the electricity which powers the vehicles is generated by solar panels on the roof of the bus company’s Corporation Road depot.
The company is in a loss-making situation, but has arranged with Zenobe, a power supply specialist, to lease the batteries and the new charging infrastructure at the bus depot. This means that the cost to Newport Transport of buying the electric vehicles is about the same as the cost of new diesel buses.
The downside is that the company has additional charges to pay each year. It will also have to repay a £2m loan from the Welsh Government which helped with purchasing the city’s existing electric fleet.
However, the electric buses have lower operating and maintenance costs than diesel ones, and Newport Transport will not have to raise further money to buy replacement batteries when the original batteries eventually become inefficient.
The additional 16 electric buses are due to start carrying passengers by the end of this year, when one in three of Newport Transport’s buses will be electric. Around half of the company’s bus services will run on electricity, with some of the older diesel vehicles relegated to a supporting role to cover the busiest periods.
However, Newport Transport managing director Scott Pearson said the full potential of the new buses to cut air pollution and carbon emissions would only be realised if residents and visitors switched from their cars to using bus services more often.
“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,” he said.
“Beyond the pandemic, we are still faced with a climate emergency which bus services can absolutely help with, by reducing the use of low-passenger-capacity modes such as car and increasing the use of multiple-occupancy options such as bus.”
Even on routes where diesel buses still operated, it was greener to catch the bus than go by car, he added.
Cardiff council and Cardiff Bus were also awarded funding by the DfT in 2019, to help introduce 36 electric buses to the capital. The deadline for ordering the vehicles was March 31, 2021, but Cardiff Bus is still unable to release any details because of “contractual commitments”.