So the
launch now officially begins for the Alexander Dennis Envrio200 MMC BYD eBus
to enter service on Red Arrow Routes 507 and 521.
The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, and
Transport for London (TfL) have announced that the capital will own Europe’s
largest fleet of electric buses, as they revealed the first two all-electric
bus routes for central London.
The Mayor announced that routes 507 and 521
will exclusively run a 51-strong fleet
of all-electric buses by the end of the year, as part of his ambitious
campaign for a dramatic improvement in of air quality in the capital. Combined
with 22 all-electric buses already
running in outer London, it will take the capital’s entire fleet of electric buses up to 73 – the largest
in Europe.
The move to the all-electric single-deck
buses, made in Britain by Chinese company BYD and British
manufacturer ADL, will eliminate NOx emissions on the routes and reduce CO2 emissions by 40 per cent.
The buses will also be the first to include
screens showing the next five stops and how the Tube and Overground is running,
as well as 12 seats with USB sockets to
help passengers charge their phones.
The first nine of these buses were unveiled
at Waterloo Bus Garage today (9 September). Earlier in the morning the Mayor
met with Xu Qin, the Mayor of Shenzhen, China, to mark the launch day and
discuss approaches to tackling air pollution.
The phased delivery of the 51 buses marks a significant step forward in the Mayor’s
comprehensive plan to transform the capital’s bus fleet. This plan includes
all 300 single-deck buses that
travel through central London to be zero
emission by 2020, and all 3,100
double deck buses to be hybrid by 2019.
The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, said: “It’s
vital that we act now to clean-up our capital’s toxic air and do everything we
can to help prevent the thousands of deaths it causes each year.
“I’ve set out a comprehensive plan to
improve our air, and the transformation of London’s bus fleet will play a key
role in making our transport cleaner and heathier.
“These first two electric bus routes right
through the heart of London are another step towards the end of conventional
diesel buses on our roads. This will
deliver extensive air quality benefits and position us as a true world leader
in adopting ultra low emission vehicle technology.”
TfL’s Managing Director of Surface
Transport, Leon Daniels, said: “These are the first two electric routes that
travel through the heart of the capital. They will mean better air quality and
better journeys for customers – with less noise and vibration than traditional
buses. Today is a real game-changer in the drive to green the capital’s
transport network.”
Isbrand Ho, Managing Director of BYD Europe,
said: “Today is the culmination of several years of hard work and we are
delighted to be here with our partners TfL, Go-Ahead and ADL inaugurating
Europe’s largest electric bus fleet. We are proud that the previous largest
fleet – of 35 ebuses – was also supplied by BYD to Amsterdam Schiphol airport.
In the UK we have a dedicated support team, a new office, a new Country Manager
and will shortly be acquiring a workshop and parts store within London. We are
in discussion with several potential customers for our electric buses and look
forward to helping more operators and their city governments to assist in
improving air quality”, he said.
Colin Robertson, CEO of ADL, said: “These
world-class vehicles are a product of partnership – in collaborating with BYD,
our shared vision has been to provide an electric vehicle solution which
responds to all of our customers’ needs. At the core of our company is our
commitment to designing, developing and manufacturing the vehicles which
incorporate the latest technologies to deliver market-leading reliability, low
total cost of ownership and environmental benefits. The premium interior
specification options will contribute to an outstanding passenger experience,
underlining our commitment to increasing ridership and bus usage in congested
cities. Seeing this fleet of vehicles
enter into service is a milestone event for all of us and we look forward to
continuing our collaboration.”
In May, the Mayor announced a number of
far-reaching proposals to clean-up London’s toxic air. As part of this, he is
making sure that TfL leads by example with a comprehensive plan to transform
the capital’s bus fleet. This includes:
Making sure all double decker buses
operating in the central Ultra Low Emission Zone comply a year earlier by 2019,
meaning each of the 3,100 double-deck
buses operating in the zone will be Euro VI hybrid
Expanding the ULEZ retrofit programme up to 3,000 buses outside the central zone by
2020 (up from 800) and to 4,200 by 2021 (over 5,000 in total)
Procuring only hybrid or zero-emission double-decker buses from 2018
Low Emission Bus Zones, operational by 2020,
that will see NOx emissions along particular routes fall by around 84 per cent.
London currently has around 2,000 hybrid electric buses,
representing around 20 per cent of the fleet, and one purely electric route.
In addition, there are eight zero emission hydrogen buses operating and TfL is trailing
inductive charging technology that enables diesel-electric hybrid buses to
charge their batteries wirelessly while they wait at bus terminals.
TfL has also accelerated the introduction of
ultra-low emission Euro VI buses with
more than 1,500 in service.
From the notes in the press release:
In May the Mayor announced a number of
proposals to improve the Capital’s air quality. Those proposals, which were
subject to a recent consultation with nearly 15,000 responses, included:
·
Extending
the Ultra-Low Emission Zone (ULEZ) to the North Circular Road and the South
Circular Road and the possibility of bringing forward the introduction earlier
than 2020
·
Implementing
an extra charge on the most polluting vehicles entering central London using
the Congestion Charge payment and enforcement system from 2017
·
Introducing
ULEZ standards for heavy vehicles London-wide from 2020
·
Giving the
go-ahead for TfL to start work on the costs and challenges of implementing a
diesel scrappage scheme as part of a wider national scheme delivered by the
Government
·
The order
for the BYD ADL Enviro200EV buses
follows a three-year trial of two BYD vehicles. The trial proved they could
consistently run a 16-hour shift without a recharge being necessary.
·
The buses
should reduce CO2 by 408 tonnes and
harmful nitrogen oxides by 10 tonnes of NOx per year
·
The 507
bus route is between Victoria and Waterloo. The 521 is from Waterloo to London
Bridge. After route 312, in Croydon,
they are the second and third purely electric bus routes in the capital.
·
43 BYD-supplied recharging posts have been
installed at Waterloo Garage. These
are capable of powering 46 buses,
with a further five charging posts being
located at nearby Mandela Way depot where five buses are to be based.
·
Since TfL was formed in 2000 it has invested
strongly in London’s bus network – resulting in a 69 per cent increase in passenger numbers. London Buses now carry around 2.4 billion passengers a year, which
equates to half of all bus journeys made
in England.
·
The
routes, the 507 and 521, which run from Waterloo to Victoria and London Bridge
respectively, are operated by Go-Ahead
under a five-year contract with TfL.
·
There are
two pollutants of particular concern in London: Particulate Matter (PM) and
Nitrogen Dioxide (NO2). The UK
Government’s action plan includes meeting NO2
legal limits in London by 2025. The
Mayor wants to use the package of measures agreed following the consultation to
ensure we can achieve this before 2025.
I’d like to
point out that Go
Ahead has paid £19 million for 51 of the single deck electric buses as part
of the new route contract and as was mentioned in the press release, they have
USB charging ports and actual LCD
passenger displays which show the journey time. Also, the Red Arrow
branding returns to the 507 and 521.
Compare this
with the Fastrack Bus Rapid Transit
service in Kent, Thameside, and instead of USB charging ports the Fastrack
buses have plug sockets.
Also, they
forgot to mention in the press release
that the Hydrogen buses are on route RV1 which goes from Tower Hill to Covent Garden
via South Bank.
The 3 door 2
staircase hybrid bus called the New Routemaster continues to be rolled out, and
will continue to be until it reaches 1,000 NRMs; this means that TFL
can concentrate on rolling out more zero emission electric buses for the
London Bus routes.
The New
Routemaster design lives on in the two
door spec called the Wright
SRM.
Since the
roll-out of the Enviro200EV’s is
slow, I recommend that you check London Vehicle Finder
to see how many Electric Buses are on routes
507 and 521; the fleet code is ‘SEe’.
Times change
rapidly, along with technology and design, so I’d like to hear your thoughts on
the new electric buses if you would
like to leave me a comment below.
You can follow
me on Twitter and Google Plus which is @CLondoner92
Multimedia
Multimedia
Image attribution
SEe5, route 521, Waterloo by Koex73 https://www.flickr.com/photos/kieransphotostream/28717754083/
