Electric buses coming to Gloucestershire with almost £6million funding award

Gloucestershire County Council has been awarded nearly £6million by the Department of Transport (DfT) to introduce Zero Emission Buses (ZEBs) in the county.

The award of £5,900,000 will fund up to 58 ZEBs in the county, meaning more than 20 per cent of Gloucestershire’s buses will be electric.

Secretary of State for Transport, and MP for the Forest of Dean, Mark Harper MP visited the Stagecoach West depot in Cheltenham to announce the funding award on Thursday 21 March.

The county council worked with bus operators Stagecoach, Pulhams and Lydney Dial a Ride to submit a joint funding application to the Zero Emission Bus Regional Areas 2 (ZEBRA 2) programme.

The successful bid will unlock total investment into electric buses and infrastructure of more than £29million, which includes the government funding, contributions from the county council and Forest of Dean District Council, and substantial private sector investment.

It is part of Gloucestershire’s ambition to replace older diesel buses and move towards a zero emission bus fleet, helping to decarbonise transport and encourage more people to travel on buses.

The benefits will include the removal of an estimated 59,069 tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions and an estimated 30 tonnes of nitrogen oxide emissions over the lifetime of the buses, supporting the county council’s aims of becoming carbon net zero by 2045 and helping to create a greener Gloucestershire.

The transport operators involved in the project will be ordering the vehicles and infrastructure, such as charging points, later this year. The first electric buses are expected to be in service in late 2025/early 2026, allowing time for infrastructure delivery and vehicle manufacturing.

Gloucestershire’s bid included the following routes:

• Routes 94 and 94x serve Gloucester and Cheltenham and offer an opportunity to electrify one of Gloucestershire’s busiest bus routes

• Route T links Bishop Cleeve and Tewkesbury, complements the 41 and 71, and would complete the EV conversion of Stagecoach’s Tewkesbury network

• Route 801 links Moreton-in-Marsh to Stow-on-the-Wold, Bourton-on-the-Water and Cheltenham. This route would see investment in one of our emerging express-bus corridors and provide links to the Gloucestershire ‘Robin’ service in the north Cotswolds and to rail services at Moreton-in-Marsh station
• Route 777 serves Lydney to Coleford. As with the 801, this is a truly rural bus route that would benefit a significant congestion hotspot and Air Quality Management Area (AQMA)

The county council’s cabinet is being asked to move forward with the electric buses project at its meeting on Wednesday 27 March 2024.

More information and details of other proposed routes are available to see in the cabinet report.

Cllr Philip Robinson, cabinet member with responsibility for buses at Gloucestershire County Council, said: “I’m delighted the Department for Transport has recognised the strength of our bid with this funding award for up to 58 zero emission buses in the county.

“It’s exciting news that we will be introducing these buses to the network. It will encourage more people to use buses in a sustainable way that will help us meet our carbon emission targets.”

Transport Secretary Mark Harper said: “As part of our plan to improve local transport across the South West, we’re providing over £43 million to roll out 352 brand new zero-emission buses across the region.

“This latest investment into our bus fleet comes on top of the £3.5 billion we have invested into our bus network since 2020, protecting and improving bus routes into 2025 as well as extending the £2 bus fare cap until the end of 2024, made possible by reallocated HS2 funding.”