Two cities in England have placed orders for double deck hydrogen buses which are manufactured by Wrightbus and Alexander Dennis – both are based in the United Kingdom.
It's been a long wait to see the hydrogen double decker buses come to London and thankfully TfL has purchased 20 of them for routes 7, N7 and 245.
Extracts from TfL press release
Transport for London (TfL) has today ordered 20 of these green buses - which produce no pollution from their exhausts - as part of its drive to make London's transport zero-emission. It follows the introduction of the world's first Ultra Low Emission Zone last month.
The environment-friendly vehicles will be introduced on routes 245, 7 and N7, with people traveling to Wembley Stadium, or from west London to the West End, able to hop on the new green buses for a smoother and quieter journey. The new, modern buses will also enhance the customer experience, with on-board USB charging points making bus travel even more attractive.
TfL is investing £12m in the new buses and the fuelling infrastructure. Wrightbus in Northern Ireland will manufacture them, creating new jobs in the region. More than £5 million of funding is being provided by European bodies and £1 million from the Office of Low Emission Vehicles.
To encourage the take-up of this trailblazing technology in other cities in the UK and Europe, TfL is leading procurement within the 'Joint Initiative for hydrogen Vehicles across Europe' (JIVE) project. JIVE aims to bring down the cost of the vehicles by buying in bulk with other authorities - helping put the price per bus on a par with the other cleanest fuels.
Sadiq Khan, Mayor of London, said: `We all have a role to play in cleaning up London's toxic air and I've always said that TfL should lead from the front. Following the launch of the world-first Ultra Low Emission Zone last month I'm delighted that TfL has today signed a contract to bring 20 state-of-the-art, zero-emission hydrogen buses to London's streets. We are investing a record £85m in cleaning up our bus fleet, and I am proud that London now has the largest zero-emission bus fleet in Europe.'
As part of the Mayor's Transport Strategy, TfL is committed to using only the cleanest buses in its fleet. Ten Low Emission Bus Zones have been introduced, reducing harmful NOx emissions by 90 per cent on some of the capital's busiest roads. All of the buses in the Ultra Low Emission Zone and seventy-five per cent of the entire bus fleet already meets these standards, with all buses set to be upgraded by October 2020. This will make the whole city a Low Emission Bus Zone.
Greening transport in the capital will require using a range of clean power sources. Hydrogen buses can store more energy on board than equivalent buses, meaning they can be deployed on longer routes. They only need to be refuelled once a day for five minutes, making them much quicker to power up when compared with conventional battery-electric buses.
The double decker hydrogen buses will expand TfL's growing number of zero-emission buses. There are currently a total of 165 zero emission buses, with a further 68 electric double deckers on the roads by the summer. TfL has also recently announced that the route 323 will become fully electric next year, along with two further routes, which will be announced later this month.
Claire Mann, TfL's Director of Bus Operations, said: `London has the cleanest bus fleet in Europe, but we know we need to go further and faster to tackle the public health emergency caused by dirty air. Innovating and using hydrogen means we have flexibility in matching the right fuel with the operational requirements of the network.
`We are also pleased to be leading an initiative that brings down the cost of buying the greenest buses across the continent and within our own country, as we know pollution doesn't respect national or local boundaries.'
Dr Penny Woods, Chief Executive of the British Lung Foundation, said: "London's air is toxic, and it needs to change. We know air pollution is a threat to all our health, and children, the elderly and those with existing lung and heart problems are most at risk, so it's good to see the Mayor of London tackling the issue head on. This move to cleaner public transport, alongside the introduction of the ULEZ, shows London's leading the way in the fight to clean up the air we breathe and we look forward to seeing even more ambitious action from TfL."
Darren Shirley, Chief Executive of Campaign for Better Transport, said: "Millions of people across the country live in areas which currently exceed legal limits for air pollution. Cities need to be doing more to improve their air quality, including investing in clean technologies as a matter of urgency. We welcome this move to clean up London's bus fleet and its polluted air.'
The bus network is central to Londoners breathing cleaner air. Buses are essential in reducing dependence on cars and are an efficient and affordable way of moving people round the capital's roads.
Recently Alexander Dennis unveiled the prototype of the hydrogen double decker bus which was tested on Route 10 in Liverpool.
Extracts from Arcola Energy
Arcola Energy, a leading UK clean-tech business working in hydrogen and fuel cell technology, has secured 15,000 sqft newly-built premises for expansion in to the Liverpool City Region borough of Knowsley.
The new premises will house the company’s manufacturing, installation and maintenance facility. It will have the capability to build, install and service hundreds of zero-emission vehicle powertrain systems in the first year of operation. In recognition of the rapid ongoing expansion in both the battery and hydrogen fuel cell electric vehicle market, sufficient space has been acquired to quickly expand to thousands of systems per year. As part of the expansion, Arcola Energy will also be upgrading existing powertrain development facilities in Hackney, London.
The manufacturing area of the new site will first be used to produce and install hydrogen fuel cell systems in a fleet of double-deck buses to be deployed in Liverpool City Region supported by a £6.4million award from UK Central Government’s Office for Low Emission Vehicles. The buses have been developed through a partnership between Arcola Energy and Alexander Dennis, the UK’s largest bus manufacturer and the largest double-deck bus manufacturer in the world.
The first prototype hydrogen bus which was successfully tested on Route 10 St Helens to Liverpool in March 2019
And recently, Liverpool City Council purchased 25 hydrogen double decker buses from Alexander Dennis.
Extracts from Alexander Dennis
The Liverpool City Region is set to be the first place in the North of England to trial hydrogen buses following a successful £6.4million bid to the government’s Office for Low Emission Vehicles.
The bid was put forward by a consortium led by industrial gases company BOC, and including the Liverpool City Region Combined Authority and Arcola Energy, working with bus-makers Alexander Dennis, and will be progressed in conjunction with Arriva and Stagecoach, as members of the city region’s Bus Alliance.
The Liverpool City Region Hydrogen Bus Project will see the creation of a new hydrogen refuelling station at the BOC plant in St Helens, which produces hydrogen for industrial customers in the region and further afield.
The project will potentially see up to 25 hydrogen–powered buses on the streets of the Liverpool City Region, emitting nothing but water from the exhaust pipe, and will contribute to the city region’s plans both to improve air quality and work towards a zero carbon economy by 2040. The first bus trial is expected to take place in 2020, subject to agreement with the Bus Alliance.
The new hydrogen refuelling station will initially deliver 500kg of hydrogen every day. Crucially, the project aims to demonstrate the commercial viability of a model that installs refuellers for high-use fleets to develop a network for future use by passenger cars and other vehicles.
When the orders are placed, it will take a while for them to be fully built and taken in to service. I do like to see ultra low and zero emission buses in various types of designs built by different manufacturers.
Also, it’s not long now until we see the Enviro400EV City buses start to appear on London Bus Route 43 during this month of May.
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