The UK Department of Transport seems to have outrun every other department in going green. By setting up a $49 million green bus fund the Department has signalled in the right direction; that it cares for the environment and wants to take steps to cut back on CO2 emissions in the UK. While the move may look small at this time, consider it as a test stage and if everything goes well, we may see many more buses being bought for the same.
While there is an indication that some 349 buses will be bought through the Green Bus Fund, it is likely that most of these low carbon buses will be hybrid in nature. Some 55 electric buses are also supposed to be bought alongside the hybrid buses.
The Department of Transport wants to take a lead in announcing steps to cut the emissions of CO2 within UK. While the critics may say that the move is quite small in comparison to the total fleet size of UK buses, we are sure that this will become a pre-cursor to bigger orders of low carbon buses. Consider this as a test case for the integration of low carbon buses within UK fleet.
One of the un-intended positive impacts of the move is the boost given to the manufacturing sector. The bus manufacturers have only good things to say about this decision. Expectedly so, the green bus fund will provide employment to 1000 or more skilled manforce that is a part of the bus building fraternity. So, while serving out the primary objective of checking fuel pollution, a great service has been done to the manufacturing sector.
Coming to the facts of low carbon buses, these consume up to 30% less fuel than the conventional buses. This will have a direct co-relation to the fuel demand and subsequent fuel pollution whereby it is expected that the CO2 levels will go down with the long term use of these buses. Given the fact that these buses will be used in cities and rural areas, one is sure that the benefits of lower emissions will be made available across the entire UK. However, since the low carbon buses are only 0.2% of total fleet size as of today, we look forward to bigger allocations so that more low carbon buses can be added to the fleet to achieve better emission control and greener environment.
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