Feature
Business Travel Sector Focus The latest news from the sectors that matter to business Transport is going green By Philip Parkin
The West Midlands’ ‘green revolution’ in public transport is already paying off, with the region’s first all-electric buses having saved a massive 700 tonnes of carbon dioxide escaping into the environment. At the moment, there are only 29
fully electric buses in the region, operating in Birmingham and Coventry. But National Express, the West Midlands’ main bus operator, has said it will never again buy a diesel vehicle, so this number is poised to rise much higher. And National Express has not
stopped at electric buses – the company will soon be operating a fleet of experimental hydrogen- powered buses that have been earmarked for a key role at the Birmingham Commonwealth Games next year.
These 20 double deckers – due
for delivery in April – were ordered by Birmingham City Council as part of its ‘Clean Air Hydrogen Bus Pilot’. The buses are being made by
Wrightbus in Northern Ireland, and are based on the firm’s ‘Streetbus’ model. They will be the world’s first
zero-emission double deckers, and will use hydrogen fuel-cell technology. The vehicles will be refuelled at a
facility at Tyseley Energy Park, in Hay Mills. They will be able to cover 300
miles on a single tank, and the only emission will be harmless water vapour. The vehicles have already been
lined up to play a key role at the Commonwealth Games, by operating the new cross city ‘Sprint’ route that will be
introduced to help ferry visitors during the event. The new ‘Sprint’ route, which will
use the A34 and A45 between Solihull, Birmingham Airport and Walsall, was announced by the West Midlands Combined Authority (WMCA) a year ago. The initial plans for the Walsall –
Solihull Sprint include extended bus lanes, priority signalling and swift boarding to improve journey times and reliability.
‘They will be the world’s first zero- emission double deckers, and will use hydrogen fuel-cell technology’
There will also be improved bus
shelters along the route will include CCTV to support passenger safety, and real-time journey information. Changes in stop layouts and off- board ticketing will also speed up the boarding process reducing time spent at each stop compared to conventional buses. At the time of this announcement, the vehicles that would be used were unknown, but it is hoped that the hydrogen buses will fit the bill. National Express said that for
this to happen, there were still many hurdles to overcome, including infrastructure and highways improvements, and depots for the vehicles. However, the WMCA has already
put a programme of works in place for the first phase of the scheme, which will be ready for the Games. This will be the first time that Birmingham has used the Sprint concept, although it is used in various forms in some 166 cities around the world, many using roadways which are dedicated to buses, which are often articulated or even bi-articulated. However, this type of vehicle has
hardly been used in the UK – it was a spectacular (and expensive) failure when it was tried in London between 2002-9. The articulated vehicles were
replaced by the ‘New Routemaster’, a diesel-electric hybrid. At around the same time, National Express also began
70 CHAMBERLINK February 2021
Going green: one of the new hydrogen powered buses that will soon be arriving in Birmingham
introducing hybrid buses, and these can still be found in Birmingham. Since then, National Express has
moved onto the next generation hybrids, followed by the fully- electric vehicles, both made by Scottish manufacturer Alexander Dennis. The hybrids are much more
technologically advanced than their predecessors, as they use an ultra- capacitor storage system rather than batteries and a direct drive unit that has removed the need for a gearbox. However, they still need a diesel
engine, to generate the electricity used by the buses – the fully- electric vehicles do not. More of these vehicles will be
arriving as and when National Express updates its fleet. The firm is particularly hopeful of boosting numbers in Coventry, which is set to become one of the first cities in the UK to run all-electric bus routes. Last month, Transport Secretary
Grant Shapps announced that a £50m grant would be made available to the city (and also Oxford) for this purpose, and it would see the removal of hundreds of diesel powered vehicles. West Midlands mayor Andy
Street said: “Turning all of Coventry’s bus fleet electric is not only a major boost to public transport in the city, but it will also help tackle the climate emergency we face both here in the West Midlands and the wider UK.” Chris Gibbens, commercial
director at National Express’ bus division, said: “National Express’ 29 fully electric buses have already clocked up over 429,000 miles since they went out in service in July and August. “The carbon emissions from the
buses that used to run on those routes would have been over 1,000 grammes per kilometre. But these beautiful British-built buses are powered by renewable energy - so they’re totally zero-emission.”
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