The UK government has announced it will invest up to £50m to create Britain’s first all-electric bus town or city.
The plan forms part of chancellor Savid Javid’s 2020/2021 spending round, for which a total of £220m will be used to implement improvements to bus services across the country.
Although the location has not yet been decided, the town will serve as a model for zero-emission bus travel, with funding contributing to a fleet of new wireless zero-emission capable buses and the supporting infrastructure.
The UK government will shortly seek expressions of interest from local authorities and bus operators.
It expects as many buses as possible to be exclusively electric, with scope to test innovations such as longer distance hybrids, which operate in electric-only mode within cities.
Local authorities will need to show how this supports their wider plans for public transport in the town or city.
