National Express Coventry is trialling an electric Yutong E12 bus on the city’s roads this month. The bus will be on loan to National Express from Welsh bus operator Newport Transport and will be used on National Express Coventry’s routes 20, 20A and 20B between Coventry, Bedworth and Nuneaton from Tuesday 16 until Thursday 25 May to enable the operator to gather driver and customer feedback and test the bus’ capabilities.
The trial is the latest step in the operator’s move to a fully zero-emission fleet, having said in 2019 that it had bought its last diesel bus and pledged to have a fully zero-emission fleet by 2030. It currently has over 100 electric double decker buses serving routes across Birmingham, Solihull and Coventry, and a further 20 hydrogen double-deck buses operate between Birmingham and Walsall.
In January this year National Express announced it was investing a further £150 million in 300 zero-emission buses to be deployed across the West Midlands, to be delivered by the end of 2024. David Bradford, Managing Director of National Express Coventry, said: “Buses are the most used form of transport here in the West Midlands. Not only do our bus services play a key role in keeping people connected, they are also critical to driving down harmful emissions.
“Getting more people to ditch their cars and switch to the bus is vital to tackling climate change and we’re proud to be leading the way with more and more sustainable transport choices for our new and existing customers. We’re grateful to Newport Transport for allowing us to borrow its Yutong bus and look forward to testing it on our routes operating out of Coventry so we can better understand capabilities and efficiencies under our usual operating conditions.”
