TfL and the London Mayor have announced new Low Emission Bus Zones for three areas of London.
Extracts from TFL press release
Just two weeks after the launch of the Ultra Low Emission Zone (ULEZ) in central London, the Mayor and TfL have taken further measures to reduce toxic air in the capital's most polluted areas by introducing three new Low Emission Bus Zones (LEBZ).
The three zones, in Lewisham, Stratford and Edmonton, cover more than 1,330 buses across 79 different bus routes.
Only buses that meet the cleanest emission standards operate within the new LEBZs, which have been delivered through a combination of new and retrofitted vehicles.
This takes the total number of clean buses introduced as a result of the LEBZ to more than 3,000.
The Mayor has pledged to work towards the entire London bus fleet being made up of zero emission vehicles.
This is going to be a long term process to get the entire bus fleet to zero emission battery electric because they set the requirements for the new buses on the new route contracts for bus companies to operate.
In working towards this goal TfL has committed to ensuring the entire bus fleet uses the cleanest Euro VI vehicles as a minimum and has already upgraded more than three quarters of its buses to meet or exceed this standard, with all buses due to meet this standard by October 2020.
This will mean that next year the entire city will become a Low Emission Bus Zone.
Under Sadiq's leadership, London now has Europe's largest zero emission bus fleet, with 68 new electric double deck buses to be in place by summer 2019.
Only two bus routes so far have 68 zero-emission double-deck electric buses; these are 43 and 134. The bus types are BYD Enviro400EV City and Optare Metrodecker electric.
The three new Low Emission Bus Zones are:
1. Lewisham to Catford from Bromley Road (at the junction with Whitefoot Lane and Southend Lane), along Rushey Green, Lewis Grove and Lewisham High Street to Lewisham Road (to the junction with Blackheath Road), cleaning up more than 470 buses, operating 31 bus routes
2. Stratford from Mile End Road (at Mile End Station) to Romford Road (up to Lugg Approach), cleaning up more than 360 buses, operating 25 bus routes
3. Edmonton to Seven Sisters from Ponders End High Street (by Nags Head Road) via Fore Street to Seven Sisters Road (by Blackstock Road), cleaning up more than 500 buses, operating 23 bus routes
Back in February 2019, TfL was awarded £6.9 million by the Department for Transport’s Green Bus fund to purchase 63 pure electric buses – we are still waiting to see which routes will be awarded the zero emission electric buses. So far, Optare and Alexander Dennis/BYD are selling their zero emission electric buses as featured on their websites. Wrightbus haven't featured their zero emission bus products including the SRM which is used for the Volvo B5LHC product.
TfL should update the bus fleet data page on their website so we can see how many ultra low and zero emission buses are currently in service.
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