18
Jun
Harrogate Bus Company unveils new fully electric bus fleet
Harrogate Bus Company has unveiled its new £21 million fleet of all electric buses.
The first of the fleet was displayed at a ceremony outside the Yorkshire Hotel in Harrogate this afternoon.
It will be among 39 new fully electric buses that will serve the district.
The move comes as the company was awarded funding from the Department for Transport to help introduce zero emission transport.
Last year, Transdev, which owns Harrogate Bus Company, placed an order for the new buses and to equip its Starbeck depot to convert its entire Harrogate fleet to fully electric power.
The fleet is expected to be rolled out over the next three months.
Henri Rohard, managing director of Transdev, told an audience in Harrogate this afternoon that it represented the “next generation” of buses in the town.
He said:
We needed something much better for our intensive services, such as the 36.
We needed something that was going to be robust.
The fully electric double decker bus will be launched on the company’s flagship 36 route, between Ripon and Leeds.
The fleet comes as part of a £21 million investment, which includes £7.8 million secured by North Yorkshire Council from the government’s zero emission bus regional areas scheme.
Twenty new Mercedes-Benz E-Citaro all-electric single deck buses, will 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.
Meanwhile, 19 new Alexander Dennis Enviro 400EV fully electric double deck buses, will be used to relaunch the flagship 36 route linking Ripon, Harrogate and Leeds.
Ministers set-up the scheme to help local authorities outside London introduce zero-emission buses.
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