London’s electric bus fleet expands

Electrification of London’s bus fleet has continued, with the rollout of 11 fully electric buses a major route through the centre of the city last week.

Route 153, operated by Go-Ahead London on behalf of Transport for London (TfL) which runs from Finsbury Park in the north to Moorgate in the City of London is now operating on a fully electric fleet following upgrades to the service.

11 Enviro200EV single deckers are now in operation on Route 153 between Finsbury Park and Moorgate

The new fleet consists of 11 10.8m BYD ADL Enviro200EV single decker buses, similar to those operated by Go-Ahead on other routes in the capital.

The zero emission vehicles entered service this month and operate from the Northumberland Park Garage in Tottenham, north London. BYD has supplied the depot with its own-designed and manufactured charging points.

Fleet

Three other ADL BYD serviced London routes, all with Go-Ahead are in operation in the capital, which include the 521 and 507 from Waterloo and the 360 from Camberwell.

Go-Ahead London was named as the winner in the Passenger Transport Air Quality Award at the 2017 National Air Quality Awards, for its work to introduce electric buses to its Waterloo bus garage (see airqualitynews.com story).

Richard Harrington, Go-Ahead Group’s engineering director, said: “We are delighted to make another significant step in the electrification of London’s bus routes and to be in the vanguard of the transformation. At Go-Ahead we have developed considerable practical knowledge of electric bus operation, gained over six years, and are well positioned to contribute further to the improvement of the capital’s air quality.”

Close to 200 fully-electric single deck buses are now in operation in the capital with the Mayor of London having outlined an ambition to have all new double-deck buses deployed in the capital either hybrid, electric or hydrogen powered in his transport strategy last year.

In central London, all double-deck buses will be hybrid by 2019 and all single-deck buses will emit zero exhaust emissions by 2020 the strategy suggests.

Emissions from buses are thought to be among the major sources of air pollutants in the capital with major work taking place to reduce the overall emissions from the capital’s vehicle fleet.

This includes a widespread retrofit programme, supported by up to £86 million in funding from the Mayor which will seek to bring up to 5,000 of the capital’s diesel buses in line with the Euro VI emissions standard by 2020.