Over 1,000 London buses retrofitted to combat NOx

TfL and City Hall announce that £10 million project to reduce emissions in capital has reached 1,000 vehicle milestone

Transport for London has completed a project to retrofit more than 1,000 buses across the capital as part of efforts to reduce NOx emissions and improve air quality in the city.

Pollution reducing equipment has now been installed on the exhaust systems of 1,015 buses operating on more than 50 routes across London, and the Mayor and TfL are now exploring plans to expand the programme with the Department for Transport (DfT).

Buses on key city centre routes in the capital have been targeted as part of the retrofit programme

According to TfL the £10 million programme gave priority to bus routes passing through areas with high nitrogen dioxide concentrations including those serving Elephant and Castle, Marylebone Road, Fulham Broadway, Oxford Street and Putney High Street.

The retrofit process involves fitting a Selective Catalytic Reduction (SCR) system to the exhaust of each bus. The equipment was trialled in 2012, and demonstrated NOx emission reductions of up to 88% in some cases.

‘Ambition’

Matthew Pencharz, the Mayor’s senior advisor for Environment and Energy, said: “Part of the most ambitious and comprehensive programme of measures being driven by the Mayor to reduce emissions and improve London’s air quality, this ground-breaking retrofit programme is making a big impact across the city.

“Greening the capital’s bus fleet is one of the Mayor’s top priorities. As well as completing the retrofit of over 1,000 older buses with this pollution busting equipment, we continue to expand the city’s fleet of hybrid buses — which includes the roll out of the New Routemasters and are also trialling the use of electricity, hydrogen and bio-diesel to power the capital’s fleet.”

The milestone follows recent calls to retrofit vehicle fleets in the UK to meet Euro 5 exhaust emission standards at a parliamentary committee inquiry hearing into air quality (see airqualitynews.com story).