UK Bus Operator of the Year, Nottingham City Transport (NCT) unveiled its latest brand new zero emission electric buses on Friday 21 March at a public launch in Clifton, attended by Nottingham South MP Lilian Greenwood and the Sandall family, who one of the new buses is named after.
The introduction of the latest electric buses to Navy Line marks a significant investment in the Clifton bus fleet and brings the total number of electric buses in the NCT fleet to 48 – the same number of the route that five of the buses will run on!
(Photo shoot 0325-044) Nottingham City Transport launch of their new Navy line electric buses in Clifton
Navy Line 3, 3A which run between Clifton, Ruddington, Silverdale, Wilford Village, Trent Bridge and the City are already running with the new buses. The Navy Line 48 which is the core service between Clifton, Queens Drive, The Meadows and the City were introduced on Sunday 30 March.
NCT is not only introducing brand new buses with extra leg room, a quieter and more comfortable ride, air con and accessibility improvements to the 48, it is also increasing the frequency of buses to every 15 minutes on Monday to Saturday daytimes.
David Astill, NCT Managing Director said: “NCT has been serving Clifton Estate since it was built and we are delighted to be expanding our electric bus fleet by investing in a significant upgrade to the Clifton bus network”.
(Photo shoot 0325-044) Nottingham City Transport launch of their new Navy line electric buses in Clifton
He continued: “It is almost a year since we introduced our first Yutong electric single deck buses and they have proven to be highly reliable and well liked by our customers, drivers and engineers. It’s great to see our 48th electric bus enter service at the end of March and with 14 more due before the end of the year, our transition to zero emission electric single decks will have been completed in 18 months”.
Residents and customers in Clifton approved of their new buses at the public unveiling at Clifton Shops on Friday, with many looking forward to travelling on them and asking about the service improvements from drivers who were on hand to answer questions.
The Yutong electric single deck buses achieve a 79% saving in well-to-wheel greenhouse gas emissions compared to existing Euro VI diesel buses and will prevent 3,800 tonnes of CO2e being emitted each year when the electric bus project is fully delivered.
The total cost of the electric bus project, which includes the cost for the new buses and infrastructure, comes to £30m. £12.3m of that cost is being supported from the Department for Transport’s Zero Emission Bus Regional Areas (ZEBRA) Fund, secured by Nottingham City Council. The remaining £17.7m is investment by NCT.
NCT’s website hosts an informative page full of facts, figures and FAQs about the electric bus project at www.nctx.co.uk/electricbus