Firm pulls out of £6.1 electric bus scheme for Stevenage

Arriva says Stevenage has too few passengers for it to invest in the electric bus scheme

A multinational transport firm has pulled out of a £6.1m deal to provide electric buses for a county town.

Arriva said passenger numbers in Stevenage, Hertfordshire, had not kept pace with national trends and it had decided not to roll out the buses.

The Stevenage scheme was part of a £198m government investment into zero-emission buses in 12 English areas.

Hertfordshire County Council had partnered with Arriva to run 27 battery-electric buses.

The firm will continue to run buses in Stevenage using its existing fleet, although last month it decided to reduce services.

Conservative Phil Bibby, the authority's executive member for transport, said Arriva's decision was "very sad".

An Arriva spokesperson said: "We are disappointed to announce that as a result of reduced customer demand post-pandemic, and recovery significantly lower than national trends, we will no longer be moving forward with plans to bring a new electric fleet to Stevenage at this time.

"We share the frustration this decision will cause, particularly amongst our customers and our delivery partner, Hertfordshire County Council, but have taken this difficult decision with the long term viability of our network in mind."

Arriva says its vehicles regularly travel with fewer passengers since Covid

Mr Bibby said: "There is nothing we can really do about this but we have negotiated with the Department for Transport [for] an extra few weeks to phone around and find a new operator."

The councillor added he would have thought all operators would be keen to take public cash to roll out the first electric bus fleet in Hertfordshire, the Local Democracy Reporting Service said.

The Department for Transport confirmed Hertfordshire County Council would receive £5.6m as part of the wider £196m fund for zero-emission buses in March 2022.

This fund sits alongside an additional investment of around £71m into new vehicles across England in 2021 and an extra £25.3m announced on 2 March, 2023.

When the government first launched the initiative in 2021, decision-makers said the investments would support vehicle manufacturers to develop zero-emission technology and support transport authorities in their efforts to reduce carbon dioxide emissions.

The scheme has been accounted for in Hertfordshire County Council's 2023/24 Integrated Plan, which sets out a total scheme cost of £6.1m.

Hourly air quality data from St George's Way in Stevenage is recorded and uploaded to the Herts and Beds Air Quality Network website.

According to provisional data on the network website, nitrogen dioxide (NO2) levels breached the legal limit of 40 micrograms per cubic metre of air on 313 occasions in January and February 2023.

Arriva is one of the largest operating bus companies in Europe

A Public Health England report sets out NO2 is introduced into the environment largely from vehicle traffic and is associated with asthma, lung cancer, and potentially low birth rate and dementia.