Reading BC and the council-owned bus service have agreed to end the use of bio-ethanol in the town’s buses, due to spiralling costs and the discovery that the fuel was made from wood pulp, rather than from sugar waste, as was originally agreed.
The town’s bus company, Reading Buses, has been using a fleet of 14 bio-ethanol powered buses on Reading’s best used bus service – Premier Route 17 – since the summer of 2008.
But it emerged during talks over the escalating cost of fuel that bio-ethanol E95 fuel, made from residues of softwood as a bi-product of pulp and paper manufacture, had been used to run the fleet. An inquiry has been launched to find out how the council was deceived.
‘It would appear the council has been grossly misled over this issue,’ said lead councillor for transport and planning, Tony Page. ‘I have instigated an investigation as to why and how this has happened.’
The bio-ethanol buses will now be converted to bio-diesel. Although bio-ethanol is only 2.61% per litre more expensive than bio-diesel, the buses it powers are 44.5% less fuel-efficient, doubling their running cost compared with the cleanest bio-diesel-powered bus.
At current prices, running Reading’s bus fleet on bio-ethanol fuel costs £590,000 over the year, in contrast to £236,000 on bio-diesel.
‘I fully welcome a thorough investigation into this matter and will do all I can to contribute in order to establish the background and circumstances around which this decision was made with no reference to myself, the board or the shareholder,’ said Reading Buses chief executive James Freeman.
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