The Department for Transport (DfT) has announced a multimillion-pound fund to encourage the purchase of low carbon buses, in order to improve the air quality in England’s cities.
As part of the department’s wider strategy to encourage a radical shift to low carbon transport, £30M will be made available to aid the purchase of the vehicles.
Local authorities and bus operators will be able to bid for the money, which they can use towards the additional cost of buying new buses.
A DfT spokesman said that this money would bridge the gap between the cost of low carbon and regular buses. The idea is that as more low carbon buses are produced and sold, the costs of the vehicles will be brought down.
The DfT hopes this move will encourage take-up of the technology and stimulate the market, of which the UK is a world leader.
Transport secretary, Andrew Adonis, said: ‘Carbon dioxide emissions from buses have increased significantly over the last 10 years. For the sake of our environment and the air quality in our towns and cities it is important to encourage the industry to move towards low carbon models.
The DfT will publish the bidding criteria over the course of the next few months, and the fund will run for two years.
Low carbon buses use at least 30% less fuel and emit almost one-third less carbon than an equivalent conventional bus.
At present, low carbon buses make up just 0.2% of buses on the roads. The fund is intended to put low carbon buses within the reach of as many operators and local authorities as possible, throughout England.
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