Green transport Nearly half of buses in city will soon be electric

ALMOST half the buses in Bristol will soon be electric ones, after the Government announced a £20 million investment into public transport in the West of England.

- Tristan CORK [e-mail]

First Bus are putting in £70 million of their own money too, and together the project will bring 160 new 'zero-emission' buses to the streets of Bristol and Bath.

Four out of the company's five depots in the region will be 'electrified', and a total of 258 buses - that's almost half of all the buses First runs in the West of England will be electric by next summer.

Government ministers announced a £37 million package of investment to make buses across England go electric and more than half the money they are spending from Hull to Torbay is actually going to be spent in Bristol, Bath and Weston.

On the ground it will mean two more of First's depots will switch to only having electric buses with Lawrence Hill and Weston Island in Bath joining depots in Hengrove and Weston-super-Mare which are currently in the process of switching.