The Harrogate Bus Company has placed orders worth £21 million for 39 new buses and to equip its Starbeck depot to convert its entire Harrogate fleet to fully electric power.

Funding for the bid includes £7.8 million secured by North Yorkshire Council from the government’s zero emission bus regional areas scheme.

Ministers set-up the scheme to help local authorities outside London introduce zero-emission buses.

The Harrogate Bus Company, whose services include the 36 that runs between Ripon, Harrogate and Leeds, is owned by French firm Transdev.

Transdev has already trialled several types of all-electric buses on three routes in and around Harrogate, and on its shuttle route linking Bradford and Keighley.

Transdev orders, which it revealed today, call for:

• 20 new Mercedes-Benz E-Citaro all-electric single deck buses, to be used on the urban route 1 between Harrogate and Knaresborough, route 7 linking Harrogate, Wetherby and Leeds, and rural route 24 between Harrogate and Pateley Bridge.


• 19 new Alexander Dennis Enviro 400EV fully electric double deck buses, to relaunch flagship route, The 36 linking Ripon, Harrogate and Leeds. These will be among the first of this new British-built design to enter service.

Henri Rohard, managing director of Transdev, described the news as "an important evolution in the quality and sustainability of our network in and around our home town of Harrogate".

Mr Rohard added:

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Roads minister Richard Holden said:

Conservative-controlled North Yorkshire Council was among 12 local authorities to submit a successful bid for government funding.

Cllr Keane Duncan, the council's executive member for highways and transport, said: