The launch of a new fleet of buses is always an exciting occasion for operators, drivers and passengers, but the launch of the fleet of new buses for the Fastway service in Crawley is even more exciting as the 20 buses are powered by hydrogen. Richard Sharman visited Metrobus to find out more
Zero-emission is a word that I have seemingly typed a couple of thousand times over the last few years, but it has nearly always been in relation to battery-electric vehicles (BEVs), and as exciting as going electric is, as an industry we have to remember that BEVs are by no means the solution for every operator in the UK, and some in the industry even question if electric is really going to be the sustainable choice for years to come.
On that point, whilst almost everyone is seemingly taking the BEV route, a few manufacturers and operators are breaking that mould and being early adapters of hydrogen technology, a technology that will almost certainly become commonplace as time goes on and more vehicles are developed.
In this feature we look at the bold move being made by Go-Ahead Group subsidiary Metrobus and its purchase of a fleet of Wrightbus GB Kite Hydroliners.
Hydrogen buses since 2010
Before we get to the new metal, it is well worth documenting the fact that Wrightbus, prior to Jo Bamford – who purchased the Ballymena bus manufacturer out of administration in October 2019 – introduced hydrogen buses into London way back in winter 2010.
Entering service on the Transport for London (TfL) RV1 route, two new 11.9m Eclipse Pulsar HEV-bodied VDL SB200 fuel cell buses began running, with a total of eight appearing on the road between 2010 and 2013. The introduction of those hydrogen buses was a collaboration between ISE, Wrightbus, Ballard and Air Products, with the buses being operated by Tower Transit.
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The RV1 was withdrawn in June 2019 after a number of routes in the SE1 postcode were reduced or withdrawn, and the hydrogen buses were moved to route 444, but this also turned out to be short lived after Go-Ahead London won the contract and introduced electric buses to the route. The Eclipse Pulsar HEVs were thus withdrawn. However, this proved to be a worthwhile trial for TfL as a way of gaining experience of hydrogen operation.
The new generation
Whilst the first generation of hydrogen buses from Wrightbus were still operating on the RV1 in 2016, the company had already further developed its hydrogen product in the form of the double-decker StreetDeck H2, later to become the StreetDeck Hydroliner.
The hydrogen fuel cell technology was shown for the first time at London City Hall on 30 November of that year, but it wouldn’t be until October 2021 that the first StreetDeck Hydroliners would enter service in London in the form of a batch of 20 for Comfort DelGro-owned Metroline. However, in between that time the world’s first hydrogen double-deck buses were launched in Aberdeen with First Bus, then in Dublin with Bus Éireann, Belfast with Translink and in Birmingham with National Express West Midlands.
Buta Atwal, Chief Executive of Wrightbus at the time of the StreetDeck Hydroliner rollout, said: “Wrightbus has a proud history of innovation and technology, which has always been at the core of everything we do. We have led the way in the practical development of clean vehicle technology in buses over many years and will continue to do so for years to come. We have already come so far since the launch of the hydrogen fuel cell bus five years ago and we can now see the positive impact our innovation is having.
“We have been relentless in our commitment to zero emissions transport, and we will continue to not only invest in that technology but also to press the case for more support for zero-emissions transport and the infrastructure it needs.”
Developing the Hydroliner
Whilst their are a few models from other bus manufacturers available when it comes to the hydrogen option, Wrightbus has been at the forefront of developing hydrogen-powered vehicles and technology. It probably helps that the Bamford Bus Company, trading as Wrightbus, has a self proclaimed clean energy enthusiast as its chairman in Joe Bamford, who also set up Ryze Hydrogen in 2017. Ryze provides complete, customer-focused hydrogen solutions including hydrogen sourcing, transport, distribution and infrastructure to support and accelerate the energy transition.
Given this experience in the field prior to purchasing Wrightbus out of administration in October 2019, it was no surprise that further hydrogen-powered bus models would quickly be developed. That next step in that development came in the form of the GB Kite Hydroliner single-decker, announced in September 2021.
Just two months later Go-Ahead Group would announce its very first order for hydrogen-powered buses as part of its commitment to decarbonise its bus fleet by 2035. The deal – said to be the largest of its kind in Europe at the time – saw the group’s Brighton & Hove and Metrobus subsidiary ordering 20 of the hydrogen fuel cell vehicles from Wrightbus for deployment on Fastway routes in the Crawley, Redhill and Gatwick Airport area.
Brighton & Hove and Metrobus is pursuing a second tranche of a further 34 buses to operate on other services in the Fastway bus rapid transit network – a network of guided busways and bus lanes designed to speed buses past congestion hotspots – and on the majority of services which are operated by Metrobus in Surrey. If completed, the scheme has the potential to be Europe’s biggest local fleet of hydrogen buses to date.
Jo Bamford said at the time of the order announcement: “Greenhouse gases released from transportation currently account for a third of the UK’s total carbon emissions, which is a sobering statistic and one that we are seeking to change at Wrightbus thanks to our world-leading zero emission vehicles. To date, our double-decker Hydroliners have prevented one million kilogrammes of CO2 from entering the atmosphere. The introduction of the new GB Kite Hydroliner single decker will help to prevent even more carbon from being released. It’s fantastic to see Brighton & Hove and Metrobus taking this vital and progressive step to decarbonise public transport to help the UK hit its ambitious net zero targets.”
Martin Harris who was Managing Director at Brighton & Hove and Metrobus at the time, said: “We run services 24 hours a day, with hilly terrain, heavy passenger loads and duty cycles well in excess of the national average at up to 370 miles per day. Those provide really challenging conditions for any technology but we concluded that hydrogen provides the most efficient replacement for our diesel buses.”
Fuelled by Air Products
In January 2022 it was announced that the Go-Ahead Group had agreed a 15-year hydrogen supply deal with industrial gas supplier Air Products to power the fuel cell bus fleet. Group Chief Executive Christian Schreyer said: “This is our first hydrogen supply deal, and it represents a milestone in our plans to transition Go-Ahead’s entire fleet of buses to zero emission fuel.
“We’re delighted to be working with Air Products and with Wrightbus. This is an example of what can be achieved through a mixture of public and private funding, and of co-operation between different environmentally responsible partners.”
Hydrogen for Mobility Director at Air Products UK Manish Patel commented: “We’re pleased to be partnering with Go-Ahead and Metrobus on the largest hydrogen supply contract for buses in the UK to date. It’s a huge milestone in the UK’s hydrogen for mobility sector. At Air Products, we’ve been involved in more than 13 million hydrogen vehicle fills across the world and have extensive experience over the last 60 years in delivering reliable end-to-end hydrogen solutions, from production to distribution and fuelling stations. Our innovative and unique solutions will provide Metrobus the infrastructure to not only fuel its initial fleet but also allow for rapid expansion without additional footprint or cost.”
Ed Wills, Managing Director at Metrobus, added: “We went through a rigorous process before selecting Air Products as our supplier. We were impressed not only with their experience in this field but with the assurance that they would be ready to begin supplying us at volume from day one.
“In addition, the liquid hydrogen fuelling station is future proofed for our operations at Crawley depot. We would just need an additional storage tank to be craned in, and we could fill 150 buses every night, without any upgrades required to the electrical grid.”
Air Products’ hydrogen will be stored at Metrobus’ Crawley depot in liquid form, before being converted to the gas which is held in tanks on the roof of vehicles. The new buses can store 37kg of hydrogen in the three roof tanks, and over 5,000kg of hydrogen can be stored in the new fueling station. Metrobus estimates that the vehicles will require refueling every other day, depending on what duty they are used on, with a hydrogen delivery schedule being very similar to that of diesel, once a week.
In service expectations
Ed Wills took up his role with the operator shortly after the GB Kite Hydroliners were ordered from Wrightbus in November 2021, and recalls some of the complexities around introducing a new model and fuel type to the group: “We should have initially taken delivery of the 20 new vehicles in June 2022, but there were some delays surrounding the homologation progress for the vehicle to gain type approval, and then there has been a shortage of components to complete the manufacture of the full batch of 20.
“Being at the forefront of vehicle technology can be a challenge, but on 24 April we put the first GB Kite hydrogen fuel cell buses into live operation for our customers as part of our initial road trials. Lots of work was done before the official launch event on 29 June but the reliability of the bus has been excellent and Air Products has not missed a beat in the supply of hydrogen to us. The launch also saw the opening of the first European liquid hydrogen refuelling station, another first for the Go-Ahead Group.
“Whilst the first batch of 20 vehicles is now delivered, we are in the final throes of working with Surrey County Council to order a further 34 for Crawley depot. Surrey County Council is hugely innovative for a local authority and is investing in clean air and decarbonising by borrowing the money to buy the buses and leasing them to us to operate.
“The team there has been amazing to work with and no one else is doing anything like it. Operators are making strides to decarbonise fleets, but the industry needs more projects like this with local authorities to really make a difference, and I feel that Go-Ahead is at the forefront of these types of projects and that we are going to be miles ahead in terms of experience of delivering alternatively fuelled vehicles to transform our fleets.
“Our group owner Kinetic is very experienced in implementing electric bus fleets in Australasia, which is an area of the world that is starting to feel the full effects of climate change, so they are hugely interested in our hydrogen fleet roll out. It will be a learning curve for the wider Kinetic group, and could make a difference in future vehicle purchasing policies if it is successful here at Metrobus. Not only that, but the more hydrogen buses we can operate from this site, the cheaper price we can buy the hydrogen in bulk will be. So it is now in our best interests to get as much of the fleet over to hydrogen power as possible. In comparison, we looked at electric, and the cost just to get enough electricity to the depot to power the fleet was astronomical, so it goes to prove that electric buses will not work for every operator.
“As part of the initial few vehicles entering service back in April, we put them on the most intensive running cards we have at this depot, going out at 0300hrs and coming back at 0100hrs in the morning. The GB Kite Hydroliner can easily achieve these kind of workings, and in real world conditions we believe the range to be between 300 and 400 miles, with those vehicles coming backing on that running card with 19% hydrogen left in the tank – and that was with the tank starting in the low 90s.
“To get that kind of range makes myself, when I have a level of scepticism of zero-emission technology, strengthens my belief. Don’t get me wrong, there is a place for both electric and hydrogen-fuelled buses, but I think as an industry, many of the electric bus routes converted have been the easier wins, whereas in reality many bus routes have little time for recharging and we don’t really want the extra resource and cost of adding buses to the peak vehicle requirement when there is a possibility that hydrogen can deliver good range and comparable refuelling rates to diesel. Whilst it may take six to eight minutes to fuel the GB Kite Hydroliner, and three minutes to fuel a diesel bus, it is just a case of making changes to the routine when buses run back in to the depot at night.
“In my mind hydrogen is the solution to long distance and intensive bus routes. Range is not such an issue and the variables when it comes to temperature are very small in comparison to electric. Whilst the cost per vehicle is around £80,000 more for hydrogen, you will probably get this back over its operating life, plus the fact that hydrogen is much more comparable to diesel when it comes to operating the vehicle.
“As a group, we have years worth of data from operating electric buses and only weeks from operating hydrogen, but it is already looking very favourable. When you also consider that firms like JCB are developing a hydrogen combustion engine for plant equipment, because electric is not good enough, then there has got to be something in it. From a passenger and driver point of view, besides it being beautifully quiet in operation, you wouldn’t know it wasn’t a normal everyday bus, with the added bonus of the driver and controllers not having to worry about the range when it’s out on the road.”
Engineering and funding
“One factor that does have to be taken into account with hydrogen is that extensive training of the engineering staff needs to be carried out. For this we had some training courses from Ricardo around understanding more about hydrogen, and our engineers went over to Wrightbus at Ballymena for extensive training too,” explained Ed. “In terms of the workshop, we had a company visit us and carry out a full inspection of what was required to work on hydrogen powered vehicles. The main things that needed changing were the workshop lighting and anything that could cause a spark risk, and also the installation of additional air vents in the roof.
“The 20 GB Kite Hydroliners were part funded with money from the UK Government and the European Union zero-emission bus schemes, with a small amount of funding also provided by Gatwick Airport, which is very interested to see these new buses in operation, with airport staff and holidaymakers using the Fastway service every day.
“The European Union funding was through the JIVE (Joint Initiative for Hydrogen Vehicles across Europe) scheme, and having the ability to visit other JIVE family operators has proven invaluable to us and this project. The fact that we are now cut off from JIVE in the future is a massive own goal of Brexit, and will by no means help kickstart a hydrogen economy.”
