Go-Ahead-owned Bluestar unveiled three new additions to its fleet earlier this week with the help of Southampton City Councillor Steve Leggett, Cabinet Member for Green City and Place.
The new ADL Enviro400 ‘deckers are the latest in a long line of new vehicles purchased by Bluestar; an impressive 111 brand-new vehicles have joined the fleet during the last five years. The latest additions are powered by Euro VI diesel engines.
Andrew Wickham, Managing Director of Bluestar, said: “It is particularly pertinent that we unveiled these low-emission vehicles at one of the city’s newly introduced bus lanes. The decision by Southampton City Council to embrace green and efficient public transport – including the introduction of the new bus lanes – will help to ensure services are frequent, reliable, and well-used here.
“This, in turn, leads to further investment in new and cleaner buses for the city. This particular expenditure was made prior to lockdown, and we are pleased to be introducing the vehicles to our customers in Southampton now. One positive to come from the past four months is that the area’s congestion has greatly reduced.
“This is a chance for us to build on that. We want to encourage local people to leave their cars at home and travel on sustainable transport with the government continuing to ease lockdown.
“These double-decker buses represent more than £500,000 investment and have the potential to take a number of cars off the road – even whilst social distancing measures are in place. Not only do they offer additional comfort for our passengers – with comfy ‘coach’ style seats, tables on the upper deck, and on-board technology like USB charging points and contactless payment facilities – they are greener than ever.
“Our team is very much looking forward to welcoming people on-board as they travel to work, shops and to social occasions.”
Councillor Steve Leggett added: “Southampton City Council is working closely with our bus operators to ensure a high quality and reliable bus transport service for the residents of Southampton, both now and in the future.
“We welcome Bluestar’s support as we partner to support the city’s post COVID-19 economic recovery. Bluestar’s investment in a comfortable, low-emission fleet of buses demonstrates their commitment both to the long-term transport needs of Southampton residents and key workers and our vision of a cleaner, healthier city.”
