£21m order placed for dozens more electric buses

Bus operator, The Harrogate Bus Company, has placed orders worth £21m for 39 new buses and to equip its depot to convert its entire Harrogate fleet to fully electric power.

The orders are supported by £7.8m worth of funding from the Government’s Zero Emission Bus Regional Areas (ZEBRA) funding, following a successful bid by Harrogate-based parent firm Transdev’s partner, North Yorkshire Council.

Transdev’s new vehicle orders follow trials of several types of all-electric buses on three varied routes in and around Harrogate, and on its high-frequency Shuttle route linking Bradford and Keighley.

The company’s order includes:

• 20 Mercedes-Benz E-Citaro all-electric single deck buses, to be used on The Harrogate Bus Company’s urban route 1 between Harrogate and Knaresborough, route 7 linking Harrogate, Wetherby and Leeds, and rural route 24 between Harrogate and Pateley Bridge
• 19 Alexander Dennis Enviro 400EV fully electric double deck buses, to relaunch flagship route, The 36 linking Ripon, Harrogate and Leeds. These will be among the first of this new British-built design to enter service

Transdev managing director, Henri Rohard, said: “We’re pleased to launch our depot and bus electrification project.

“It is an important evolution in the quality and sustainability of our network in and around our home town of Harrogate.

“All our bus fleet will be renewed in the process, giving our Harrogate Bus Company the most modern and passenger oriented network.

“The project has been made possible thanks to the significant support from the Government’s ZEBRA fund.

“In combination with our existing eight Harrogate Electrics-branded Volvo 7900E electric buses, the first of their kind in Britain, 47 fully-electric vehicles are now expected to be in service in spring 2024.

“Higher power output delivered by today’s new generation batteries means each bus can go further between charge-ups.

“And to make sure we provide a reliable service, our buses will also have top-up charges at Harrogate Bus Station, as they will travel further in a day than the maximum range achievable by fully electric buses.”

The news is being welcomed by North Yorkshire Council, which was among 12 local authorities to submit a successful bid for millions of pounds in Government funding to support Transdev’s introduction of a zero emission electric bus fleet in Harrogate.

North Yorkshire Council’s executive member for highways and transport, Councillor Keane Duncan, said: “We are happy to see that our successful bid for Government funding is helping to transform bus travel in and around Harrogate.

“We look forward to continuing to work with Transdev on this project. It’s great news for passengers and an important step towards achieving our climate aims.”