FirstGroup has signed a £150m Green Hire Purchase Financing Facility with a syndicate of three banks to support the purchase of electric bus bodies (the chassis and drivetrain, excluding the battery). This follows the strategic Joint Venture with Hitachi to purchase up to 1,000 electric bus batteries announced by the Group in November 2023. The […]
What will be one of the biggest UK fleets of electric buses were officially launched last night in Oxford. B&CB’s Features Writer, David Cole, was there. The £82.5m project will deliver 159 new battery buses onto the streets of the university city, the first of which have already gone into service. It has also funded […]
London-based Redwing Coaches, backed by sector investor REL Capital, is to be one of the launch customers for the Volvo B8R-based MCV eVoTor, the new coach exclusively launched in the UK and Ireland in November. The six new Volvos will join a 35-strong fleet of coaches at the operator’s depot in Croydon and Gravesend, Kent. They will feature […]
Dudley’s 1980s bus station closed to regular operations after the last services departed on Saturday 13 January. West Midlands Combined Authority plans to demolish the existing site and construct the town’s new Transport Interchange accommodating both buses and West Midlands Metro in its place, funded by the DfT’s City Region Sustainable Transport Settlement. Until the […]
Alexander Dennis has supplied an Enviro200 to Reptons Coaches. The new 10.8m long single-decker joins three earlier-generation vehicles of the same type at the Surrey family business. “Our passengers on local bus services will enjoy the comfort offered by its Alexander Dennis SmartSeats in a tidy interior…” – Repton Coaches owner, Andy Repton Repton Coaches […]
An Arriva company and its cleaning firm have been fined after a man was killed after being hit by a reversing vehicle at the depot where he worked,, the Health and Safety Executive has reported. Albin Trstena, 25, from Tottenham was hit by a reversing bus driven by a colleague at an Arriva depot in […]
First West of England has begun partnering the Bristol-based charity Suicide Prevention UK, training drivers to spot the signs of someone planning to take their own life. ‘There is someone…’ is a campaign which aims to provide support and guidance for anyone planning to end their life, ensuring there is someone to to listen, talk […]
A forum is being set up to develop a tap and cap ticketing solution for the country. The Integrated Ticketing Advisory Forum (ITAF) will be chaired by sub-national transport body Midlands Connect. It will provide an opportunity for Midlands local transport authorities and other sub-national transport bodies to share the work they are doing to […]