Go-Ahead adds 20 FC buses to Gatwick fleet
In the London Gatwick Airport greater area, 20 fuel cell buses procured by the transport company Go-Ahead are now in use. To supply the buses, Air Products operates a liquid hydrogen filling station in Crawley in the immediate vicinity of Gatwick Airport.
The GB Kite Hydroliners ordered by Go-Ahead from the Northern Irish manufacturer Wrightbus in autumn 2021 are the first hydrogen buses in the transport company’s fleet of around 6,000 buses. However, a further 34 fuel cell buses are to be added within the next 18 months in neighbouring Surrey County. “Once fully delivered, the fleet will comprise 54 vehicles and will be one of the biggest hydrogen bus fleets in Britain. It will be served by a liquid hydrogen refuelling station – the largest of its kind in Europe,” Go-Ahead writes.
However, the transport company will not operate the FC buses itself, but the bus companies Brighton & Hove and Metrobus, which belong to Go-Ahead. The vehicles are intended for use on the “rapid routes” (BRP, Bus Rapid Transit) near the airport, specifically in and around the London suburbs of Crawley and Gatwick. The model ordered is a single-deck H2 bus, which Wrightbus launched in 2021. Previously, the manufacturer had made a name for itself primarily as a provider of double-decker electric and FC buses.
There are no specifics about the 20 fuel cell buses now entering service, however, it is known that the GB Kite Hydroliner has a Ballard FCmove fuel cell with 70 or 100 kW and a small supplementary battery with 30 or 45 kWh on board. In addition, hydrogen tanks with a storage volume of 35 or 50 kilograms. In the most powerful version, the FC bus is expected to travel 650 miles, which is the equivalent of about 1,050 kilometres.
To supply the buses, Air Products operates a liquid hydrogen filling station in Crawley, which, according to the initiators, is the first of its kind in Europe. The hydrogen is stored there in liquid form before it is converted into gas in tanks on the roof of the vehicles. Once the H2 station reaches full capacity, it will be able to supply hydrogen for over 100 buses per day, according to Go-Ahead.
When the order was placed in 2021, Martin Harris, Managing Director of Brighton & Hove and Metrobus, already specified why hydrogen buses were now being used for the first time: “We run services 24 hours a day, with hilly terrain, heavy passenger loads and duty cycles well in excess of the national average at up to 370 miles per day. Those provide really challenging conditions for any technology but we concluded that hydrogen provides the most efficient replacement for our diesel buses.”
The 20 FC buses that have now arrived were purchased with just over £4.3 million (about €5 million) in funding from the United Kingdom’s Ultra-Low Emission Bus programme.
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