Minister announces new route to greener buses and better services

Speaking at the Coach and Bus Show 2003 in Birmingham, the Minister announced:

• Up to £3 million funding for bus manufacturers to develop 150 demonstration low carbon buses.
• New guidance to make buses faster and more reliable.
• New advice to bus drivers about their responsibilities towards passengers with disabilities.

"Bus users want services to be punctual, reliable and not slowed down by other traffic. The bus priority resource pack I am launching today will help local authorities implement traffic management schemes which give buses priority. And advice to bus drivers will help ensure buses are easily accessible to passengers with disabilities.

"As well as better services, we want buses which are cleaner and more environmentally friendly. That is why I am inviting the industry to come forward with proposals to manufacture, operate and evaluate demonstration fleets with funding from our greening transport programmes."

Mr McNulty invited expressions of interest for low-carbon bus projects to be submitted by the end of 2003, with the aim of getting the first of the new buses into operation during 2004.

Notes to editors

1. The Bus Priority Resource Pack has been drawn up by a task group set up by the Bus Partnership Forum. The Forum brings together under Mr McNulty's chairmanship senior representatives of the bus industry and local authorities to identify and take forward measures to encourage bus use.

2. There are many examples of successful bus priority schemes but these schemes require careful design and implementation. The Resource Pack will help more local authorities to overcome the difficulties identified from past research and to apply the best techniques from the experience of successful schemes. [Copies of the overview of the resource pack will be available at Coach and Bus 2003 at the CPT stand. Additional copies of the overview or the complete resource pack can be obtained by requesting a copy from buspriority@dft.gov.gsi.uk

3.The Government announced a target in the Powering Future Vehicles Strategy, published in July 2002, that at least 600 new low-carbon buses, with greenhouse gas emissions (expressed as carbon dioxide), at least 30% lower than current modern buses, should be coming into operation each year.

4.The UK bus industry is developing new designs of bus that meet this standard, a number of which are based on hybrid diesel technology to reduce tailpipe emissions. The Government is now supporting the manufacture and evaluation in service of demonstration fleets of low-carbon buses with funding from TransportEnergy programmes administered by the Energy Saving Trust (EST).

5.Grants will be provided to help cover the additional initial costs of manufacturing, maintaining and operating low carbon buses. The fleets will be evaluated in service for their reliability, passenger comfort and economic feasibility. The Energy Saving Trust will carry out emission testing to ensure they are meeting their low carbon targets.

6. The scheme is expected to cover up to 150 buses, running in fleets of 5-15 across a range of operating conditions (eg rural, urban, rural/urban mix).

7.The Government has a target of reducing CO2 emissions by 60% by 2050. Road transport currently contributes over 20% of total UK CO2 emissions, the second largest contributor after public power production.

8. Application forms for the low-carbon bus project are downloadable from the TransportEnergy website at www.transportenergy.org.uk

9. The driver advice leaflet explains the duties of drivers contained in the amendment to the Public Service Vehicles (Conduct of Drivers, Inspectors, Conductors and Passengers) (Amendment) Regulations 2002.