Britain's Transport Secretary Andrew Adonis said "At present, low carbon buses make up just 0.2 per cent of buses on the road today .The fund is intended to put low carbon buses within the reach of as many operators and local authorities as possible throughout England".
Manufacturers of electric vehicles and hybrid technologies will get a boost from this fund. With a current price differential of around £80,000 (NZ $200,000) per vehicle, this initiative should see deployment of at least 400 vehicles on British roads over the next two years. Department for Transportation statistics reveal an average of 900 new buses are registered in Britain each month.
Speaking at the launch of the Optare Solo EV at Downing Street, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown in making the announcement reiterated the wider strategy of reducing emissions from Britains public transport fleet.
Bus operators and local authorities will be able to bid for funding toward the additional cost of buying a Low Carbon Emission Bus. The Department will assess the bids against published criteria and will award grant to the winners. This grant will help to meet the upfront cost of the vehicles. This criteria will be published shortly.
MTT Trustee Kevin Gale said that he looks forward to details of the criteria and lauds the British initiative. Manawatu, New Zealand has a clean and green image; reducing emissions from our public transport while improving energy security needs to be uppermost in our minds. Powering our bus fleet using renewable energy sources and improving frequency of services will take us further along the conservation path he adds.
Amendments to the Bus Services Operators Grant announced in April 2009 provide operators of low carbon emission vehicles with a 3% increase in the Bus Services Operators Grant rate, in addition to 6p (NZ $0.15) per kilometre being paid to recipients. The intention is to level the playing field for operators of low or for that matter zero carbon emission vehicles. The amendments ensure that "green" bus operators receive the same capital cost rated subsidy as their emissions belching operators receive. That is a good start, and together with the newly announce vehicle procurement subsidy "green" bus operators will no longer be disadvantaged. Some might even say that it pays bus operators to go green!
Posted: Sun 05 Jul 2009
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