Sheffield bus retrofit failure partly due to city hills - MP

Around 75% of the 400 buses in Sheffield were retrofitted as part of a government initiative

A scheme to retrofit Sheffield's buses to make them greener partly failed due to the city having many hills, an MP has said.

The diesel buses were retrofitted with devices designed to reduce harmful emissions under a government project.

Paul Blomfield, Labour MP for Sheffield Central, said the technology needed a consistent speed to work properly and travelling down hills hindered that.

A Department for Transport minister said it was looking at mitigations.

Funding was given to retrofit the buses, which are on average 12 years old, following the introduction of the Sheffield clean air zone in February.

Mr Blomfield said about 75% of the 400 buses in the city were retrofitted, but most did not comply with Euro 6 emission standards.

The MP said the government needed "to move away from trying to refit the old buses" and create a new fleet in order to hit clean air targets.

"We've all learnt that the government strategy of retrofitting hasn't worked and now they've got to come to terms with the consequences and provide us with the clean vehicles that we need," he said.

MP Paul Blomfield said the city requires new buses rather than upgrading old ones

Mr Blomfield said the main problem with the retrofit devices running in urban areas was that "they do not reach the required temperatures to treat emissions as a result of the regular stop-start conditions".

He continued: "It's a bigger problem in Sheffield because when they're coming downhill it doesn't reach the temperature."

James Vincent, BBC Yorkshire political editor

Sheffield's hills are great, but they're not for everyone - and you can now add some buses into that category.

The government's plan to retrofit old buses to make them environmentally friendly hasn't gone to plan.

The lack of engine power needed for going down Sheffield's hills has been blamed by some.

MPs in the city are asking for more zero-emission buses, with the first batch expected to start running in the spring.

Air pollution contributes to one in 20 deaths in Sheffield each year, according to the city council.

That is one of the reasons the city now has a clean air zone that charges polluting vehicles for driving in it.

But many vehicles in the city's bus fleet have an exemption from payments.

Speaking during a parliamentary debate in December, Conservative MP Anthony Browne said the retrofit scheme "hadn't performed as expected in real world conditions".

The South Cambridgeshire MP, who is minister for aviation, decarbonisation of transport and future of transport, added: "We are examining exactly what the impact is and what the mitigations can be."

Transport operator Stagecoach recently said it had debuted 20 new double-decker buses in Sheffield that did conform to emission standards and had bid for 65 new electric buses from the government.

Matthew Topham, from campaign group Better Buses for South Yorkshire, said passengers wanted clean and reliable services.

"If your bus breaks down because it's too old, that means that service isn't turning up and you're left waiting at a cold, dark bus stop," he said.

"That's why we need these fleets to be invested in and brought up to the 21st Century standards."