Liberal Democrat councillors on Durham County Council are praising a bid by Transport North East which would see dozens of buses on routes throughout County Durham transformed with electric bus services.
The bid to government is for £18.1 million with matched funding from Durham County Council of £3.4 million, £516,000 from Northumberland County Council and significant private sector funding of £16.3 million from Go North-East. The Zero Emission Bus Regional Area (Zebra) fund is a Department for Transport scheme to reduce carbon emissions from buses.
Routes which are included in the bid include nine routes operating out of Consett depot including the V1 V2 V3 V4 V5 V9, 40 40A 40B, 700/1/2 and X5/X15 services, the 21 Angel service which runs out of Gateshead depot from Newcastle through to Durham and Brandon and Durham County Council’s own Park and ride services.
In total 73 electric buses would be introduced with charging infrastructure costs included in the bid.
Durham’s Cabinet portfolio holder for regeneration and economic development, Councillor Elizabeth Scott, a member of the North East Joint Transport Committee commented, “This is an amazing bid and if the funding is received it will be a transformational boost for bus services in County Durham. A successful bid will ensure that services running into Durham City, as well as through the county and in the Consett area are more sustainable into the future.”
Fellow Councillor Mark Wilkes, Cabinet member for Neighbourhoods and Climate Change said he was delighted by the bid, saying, “Being able to convert the entire park-and-ride fleet to electric vehicles would make a massive difference.
“We’ve had an Air Quality issue in Durham City for over a decade. Changing dozens of diesel buses to electric ones will not only help cut carbon emissions and pollution, it will protect services by keeping down the cost of running these services.”
“We hope this is just the start and more routes across County Durham will see a rapid move to electric buses.”
Eighteen double decker Angel 21 buses would be replaced, along with 14 single deck buses operating out of Consett and 14 park and ride buses in Durham City.
A further 17 buses on the Cobalt and Coast routes and 10 buses operating on routes out of Hexham would also see electric services installed.
The bid to the Department of transport was submitted last week. Timescales for confirmation of the winning bids have not been confirmed but it is expected to be later in the Spring. A total of £199m is available and 17 local transport authorities are expected to make bids.
