First Bus orders 74 new electric vehicles for Glasgow and Aberdeen from Alexander Dennis and Pelican Bus & Coach
First Bus took the opportunity as part of World Car Free Day on 22 September to announce that it has invested £35 million in 74 new electric buses and supporting infrastructure in the latest step on its decarbonisation journey. The buses have been purchased for service in Glasgow and Aberdeen, with an order of 50 Alexander Dennis buses, worth £19.7 million, for Glasgow and 24 Yutong buses, worth £8.4 million, for Aberdeen.
The new vehicles, which will be supplied by Alexander Dennis and Pelican Bus & Coach, are expected to start to arrive in the cities next year. Ahead of their arrival, a further £2.1 million will be invested in Aberdeen’s King Street depot, and £4.8 million in Glasgow’s Scotstoun depot, to install rapid charging points to support the new fleets. The work to transform the sites is expected to take 12 months.
First says the arrival of the new buses will mark an important milestone for its fleets in each city. Once in operation, Glasgow – which is already home to the UK’s largest charging hub at First’s Caledonia depot – will have a fleet that is 40% electric. Meanwhile, Aberdeen will increase to 50% emission-free, following the introduction of its hydrogen-powered fleet last year.
The 74 electric buses are expected to save approximately 4,474 tonnes of CO2e per annum between the two areas of operation – the equivalent of removing carbon emissions from 2,116 diesel cars currently on the roads each year.
First’s investment has been supported by £18.6m from Transport Scotland through its Scottish Zero Emission Bus (ScotZEB) funding. Duncan Cameron, Managing Director at First Bus Scotland, said: “We’re proud of the progress that we’ve made across Scotland; these new buses will make a significant impact to our mission to be emission free by 2035.
“What we hope will make an even more sizeable impact on emissions and air quality, is people’s decision to choose bus as their preferred mode of transport. These state-of-the-art new EVs will provide a more pleasant journey for passengers, and we hope that they’ll encourage more people living in these cities to leave their cars behind in favour of bus travel.
“We recently launched our Modal Shift campaign to put across the message that, with just some small changes to our daily routines, together we have the opportunity to transform our city’s congestion, air and noise pollution.”
The Modal Shift campaign supports First’s efforts to provide ‘environmentally conscious, cost-effective travel’ across Scotland. Through the campaign, First hopes to encourage car users to tackle common pain points associated with car travel, including pollution and excessive expenditure.
