Leicester rolls out electric buses for Park & Ride routes
Leicester City Council has rolled out a fleet of 11 new all-electric buses across its three Park & Ride routes. The investment is the first phase of a £50m project to operate electric buses across a third of the city’s network by 2024.
The electric bus fleet was ordered from Yutong buses have been provided by Pelican Bus and Coach, with operations beginning this week between Meynell’s Gorse, Birstall and Enderby. Charging of the new bus fleet will take place overnight at the Coalville depot of Roberts Travel Group, which runs Leicester’s Park & Ride services together with the County Council. The charging infrastructure was installed in partnership with Zenobe Energy.
This is not the end of the project, however, as four new electric buses will be introduced on the city’s Hospital Hopper routes in autumn, and a further three will operate a brand new, free of charge city centre shuttle service from autumn 2022. “We know that if we are to persuade people to leave their cars outside the city centre, we need to offer them attractive and affordable travel alternatives,” said City Mayor Peter Soulsby, adding: “Thanks to our successful bid for government funding through the Transforming Cities Fund, we’ve been able to make this significant investment into sustainable public transport. We know that if we are to persuade people to leave their cars outside the city centre, we need to offer them attractive and affordable travel alternatives.”
0 Comments