Operators embracing green bus technology, report finds

A Low Carbon Vehicle Partnership (LowCVP) report, commissioned by Greener Journeys, has found that buses employing a range of green transport technologies are gradually transforming the sector.

A Green Bus for Every Journey, the second in a series of reports by the bus campaign group, focuses on the experience of bus users and the wider benefits of the bus to communities.

The report shows how bus services in many of the regions of the UK are experiencing large growth in bus patronage, with regions like Bristol (19 per cent increase from 2009/10 to 2015/16), Reading (17 per cent) Milton Keynes (15 per cent) and Oxfordshire (12 per cent), having benefited from investment by local councils in partnership with operators. Elsewhere York has recently experienced a seven per cent increase in bus usage since 2011/12, which is the equivalent of an extra 600,000 passenger journeys per year.

Launched at the UK Bus Summit, the report identifies improvements in cleaner vehicle technology, real-time travel information, integrated ticketing, free Wi-Fi and charging, improved seating, shorter journey times, better routing and bus priority measures such as bus lanes.

The first report, The Journey of the Green Bus, followed the bus journey over the last 10-20 years and how it has resulted in the introduction of greener, cleaner buses in the UK which are helping deliver on climate and air quality objectives.

Claire Haigh, chief executive of Greener Journeys, said: “This new report clearly shows that investment in buses, and prioritisation of bus networks, can reap real rewards by increasing passenger numbers and taking more cars off the road, with all the economic, social and environmental benefits that brings.

“We would encourage councils and operators across the UK to look at the innovative services, measures for tackling congestion and clean bus technology detailed in this report as a model for raising usage and sparking their own bus renaissance.”

Andy Eastlake, managing director of the LowCVP, who co-released the report, said: “This report, the third in a series on progress in the bus industry, shows that innovation in technology is a part – but only a part – of what will make passengers return to the buses in greater numbers.

“Buses have the potential to play a central role, particularly in cities of the future where the idea of mobility as a service is already becoming a reality. But, as these case studies show, the industry has to move fast to keep up with the game and deliver the kinds of services that modern passengers are coming to expect.”