New New Bus Grant Announced

What do we know about the government’s Green Bus Fund winning bids, announced yesterday? Well, let’s start with what we don’t know. Though ADL, Optare, Volvo, Wrightbus and MCV are all suppliers, we don’t know specifically which manufacturers will benefit most, though we do know the DfT claims the fund will secure 1,000 manufacturing jobs (and just when the industry needs it most).

We also don’t really know the technology on offer. “Most” will be hybrids and a minimum of 55 will be electric vehicles. We are left guessing whether any of the other buses will use any other form of technology (e.g bio-methane).

We *do* know that:

• This will inject £30.2 into the manufacturing industry. Not all of this will be new money, of course, as some buses will be straight replacements for otherwise conventional orders.


• They will qualify for a BSOG uplift next April of three per cent April, provided at least six per cent of fuel is saved. It’s claimed most of these low carbon buses use “at least” 30 per cent less fuel.


• It would appear that all 17 bidding organisations won something, although of the 365 buses bid for, only 349 were allocated funding by DfT. The competition may therefore not have been so healthy as the DfT might’ve liked.


• Assuming that the total of new PSV registrations in 2009 will be 3,000, the fund covers the cost of 12 per cent of vehicles manufactured. This percentage will rise in 2010 as the number of orders declines quite dramatically. Buses are anticipated for summer 2010 delivery, onwards.


• A large range of operators bid from large to small, disproving the hypothesis that it was too difficult to do so and that the costs would outweigh the benefits. That said, there were no bids from Arriva or Go Ahead; or from Veolia or Transdev.


• Such a massive injection in the green bus sector will secure and develop technical expertise.

About a third of buses will go to the Greater Manchester region (coloured orange in the graphic, above).