Lothian recently announced that it has won funding from the Scottish Government’s Bus Emission Abatement Retrofit (BEAR) programme.
The BEAR programme was established by the Scottish Government to help ensure buses and coaches are fitted with approved retrofit technology measures in preparation for the introduction of Scotland’s Low Emission Zones (LEZ). The operator has subsequently been granted £327,604 of Bear Phase 2 funding.
The funding received will be utilised to deliver 11 buses and a further 25 buses have been awarded 40% funding, with Lothian committing to paying the remaining 60% of the costs.
Claire McVicar, Lothian’s Environmental Officer leading on the Bus2020 project said: “We are fully committed to improving air quality across all our operations in Edinburgh and the Lothian’s through our ambitious Bus2020 strategy, in line with the Scottish Government’s climate change targets.
We are delighted to receive further funding from the Scottish Government to assist us in achieving our aims.
This funding combined with our own substantial investment, will be used to retrofit 36 of our Euro V buses to Euro VI standard, enabling us to continue to reduce our emissions in some of Edinburgh’s key air quality management areas.”
As part of the operator’s Bus2020 strategy, Lothian will only run Euro V or above buses by the end of 2020, accompanied by a reduction in particulates by 75% and harmful NOx emissions by 98% and a removal of 12,000 tonnes of CO2 from its carbon footprint.
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