AROUND a quarter of West Yorkshire’s bus fleet is set to become ‘cleaner’ thanks to a £4.75 million project.
Plans to fit emission-reducing clean technology to more than 230 of the county’s buses have been approved at a meeting of the West Yorkshire Combined Authority.
The scheme, scheduled to be completed by March 2019, is to be funded by £4.21 million from the Department for Environment, Food, and Rural Affairs’ (DEFRA) Clean Bus Technology Fund, secured by the Combined Authority and Leeds City Council, and more than £500,000 from bus operators.
The technology is forecast to remove 31 tonnes – the weight of around 19 cars – of harmful nitrogen oxides from buses per year and deliver £3.9 million in reduced environmental and health damage costs over a five-year period.
Councillor Keith Wakefield, chairman of the Combined Authority’s Transport Committee, said:
“Now, as a result of successful bids to DEFRA by the Combined Authority and Leeds City Council and contributions by bus operators, we have the opportunity to invest £4.75 million in making the air that people across West Yorkshire are breathing, cleaner.”
Arriva Yorkshire, First West Yorkshire and Transdev have invested over £23.5 in new, low-emission vehicles over the past 18 months in line with their Bus18 initiative pledge to reduce harmful emissions.”
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| Local operators have invested over £23.5 in new vehicles |
