We welcome a £1.8 million funding grant to purchase 9 more additional zero emission buses which will make the First Bus, James Street depot one of the first fully electric depots outside of London.
This builds on a separate funding bid from 2022 in which City of York Council were awarded £8.4 million from the Department for Transport to support the purchase of 44 fully electric buses. Overall, York’s electric bus fleet will reduce the city’s carbon emissions by 3,900 tonnes per year.
Electric buses can only make a difference if passengers are incentivised to use them, so it is good to see that ongoing funding from the Department for Transport which caps the cost of a single journey at £2 has been extending until June. Nationally, this represents £135 million worth of funding and initial analysis shows it has encouraged the public to use the bus more.
Electric buses will also help improve our city’s air quality. The Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affair’s Air Quality Grant Programme provides funding to local authorities to carry out projects in local communities to tackle air pollution and reduce emissions affecting schools, businesses, and residents. Since 2010, nearly £53 million has be awarded through the programme. Last month it was announced that City of York Council had been awarded £101,375 to develop a public air pollution forecasting system. This builds on a grant of £297,237 which was awarded in 2021 for an examination of how to reduce pollution from goods vehicles.
