First Bus has been commended for its role as the principal partner in Bristol’s year as European Green Capital.
The operator employed a bio-methane powered bus in the city, along with a pair of Virtual Electric double-deckers with geo-fencing technology secured in partnership with Bristol City Council and the Department for Transport.
First also invested in 59 Euro 6 buses in the city, sponsored a community apprentice scheme and partnered in a Bristol schools programme.
FirstGroup Chief Executive, Tim O’Toole, said: “We finish this Green Capital year proud to have helped showcase Bristol as a sustainable place to live. At the heart of our partnership with Bristol Green Capital has been a mutual recognition that getting public transport right is essential to securing a cleaner, greener future.
“We have worked over the last year to make the city a test-bed for sustainable transport innovation – bringing together FirstGroup’s unique mix of global expertise and local knowledge with the city’s commitment to find sustainable solutions.
“We’ve achieved a lot together – and we want to ensure this continues through the strong and creative partnership we have with Mayor George Ferguson and the City Council – it definitely doesn’t end here.”
Mayor of Bristol, George Ferguson, said: “FirstGroup has played a pivotal role as Green Capital partners, embedding major physical changes for Bristol and encouraging other cities to follow in our footsteps.
“Not only are we working together to introduce the latest green technologies, but we are using those very innovations to inspire a lasting change in each and every one of us.
“I encourage everyone, as we did throughout 2015, to think even more carefully about the impact of all our individual actions on the health of the city and the planet. I thank FirstGroup for the spirit with which they have entered this partnership and in particular the way they have combined new technology with a sense of fun with the now world famous Bristol ‘poo bus’.”
