Warrington to become the UK’s next all electric bus town
The English town of Warrington has confirmed plans to transition its entire bus fleet to electric. This affects 105 vehicles which the city will replace with e-buses after having secured the largest funding award from the Government’s 2011 ZEBRA scheme.
Warrington, located between Liverpool and Manchester, will make the transport transition via a partnership between operator Own Buses and the Warrington Borough Council. The latter had successfully applied for the Zero Emission Bus Regional Areas (ZEBRA) funding. The first round in November 2021 resulted in 335 zero-emission vehicles coming to towns in England as the DfT granted £71 mn with Warrinton reportedly receiving £21.5 million (€25.4 mn).
Today’s announcement, however, refers to a higher budget that was required due to changed prices post-Covid and the current high rate of inflation. The Council has now approved the new spending but makes no mention of the actual sum.
“I’m delighted that Cabinet has now given the go-ahead to our remodelled ZEBRA scheme,” said Warrington Borough Council’s Cabinet Member for transportation, Cllr Hans Mundry. “Warrington will be one of the only places in the UK to have all-electric buses,” he added.
Moreover, Warrington is expected to use electricity generated by its own solar farms to power the fleet of buses cutting emissions further.
To maximise the benefits of the ZEBRA funding, the council has also committed to an Enhanced Partnership with all local operators.
“The ZEBRA project – and the introduction of one of the largest fleets of electric buses in the UK – gives us a fantastic opportunity to deliver greener and cleaner transport and transform perceptions of bus travel, supporting our work to drive growth in bus usage in our borough,” said Chair of Warrington’s Own Buses, Cllr Cathy Mitchell. “At the same time, the overall improvements delivered through our Enhanced Partnership with bus operators and our Bus Service Improvement Plan (BSIP), will ensure that the introduction of our new fleet of electric vehicles is just one part of a much wider package of measures designed to drive up the quality of bus services across the board.”
Ahead of the rollout, charging infrastructure is being installed at a depot for Warrington’s Own Buses to use. The new depot will be ready to house the new fleet of zero-emission buses when they launch in 2024, so the Council.
There has been no mention on the type of buses Warrington opted for. However, Britain stil has domestic suppliers such as ADL or Wrightbus.
ZEBRA is the Government’s initiative to introduce 4,000 zero-emission buses across England by 2025.
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