A FURTHER 42 buses that provide services in Leicester will be adapted to make them cleaner to run as part of the city’s efforts to cut air pollution.
The government’s Joint Air Quality Unity (JAQU) has awarded the city council £672,000 to help it extend work to clean up exhaust fumes and city harmful emissions from buses in Leicester.
In recent years, the city council has worked with the main local bus companies to fit pollution filters to 211 diesel buses operating on the city’s main routes.
This means that an ambitious bid to create city centre clean air zone for buses – where all vehicles meet the highest Euro 6 standard for nitrogen dioxide (NO2) emissions – has already been delivered.
Now the new funding will see the council work with six bus operators to see the filtering technology retrofitted to 42 vehicles operating on routes on the outskirts of the city. This includes some school buses and coaches.
Deputy city mayor Cllr Adam Clarke, who leads on environment and transportation, said: “Tackling emissions from diesel vehicles is an ongoing and vital part of our work to further improve air quality across the city.
“Working in partnership with local bus operators, we have already made huge investment to cut emissions and reduce pollution from the vehicles. I am proud to say that we are already delivering on our pledge to deliver a clean air zone for buses in and around the city centre.
“This latest funding will allow us to extend that and support other important local bus services to upgrade their vehicles to highest European clean air standards.”
The six bus companies that the city council will be working with in this round of funding are Arriva, Ausden Clarke, Centrebus, Confidence, Orbit Coaches, and Stagecoach.
The Euro emissions standards for buses are a technical measure defined by engine energy output in grams over kilowatt hour (g/kWh). The Euro 6 standard for NO2 is just 0.4g/kWh.
As part of it £80million Transforming Cities Programme, supported by £40million for the Department for Transport, Leicester City Council is also investing almost £5million to help replace diesel vehicles with ultra-low emission electric buses on all local Park and Ride Services. The new electric services will be launched later this year.