Electric buses heading to Gloucestershire routes

Brand new electric buses are heading to routes in Gloucestershire over the next 12 months, it has been announced.

The vehicles were included in a £500m deal for one of the country's largest bus companies, Go-Ahead, backed by the government.

Go-Ahead Bus said the investment would "accelerate the transition to zero-emission fleet across the UK"

One of its companies, Pulham's Sons & Coaches said it would put 15 of the buses on the roads in the county by October 2025.

Alex Chutter, the Pullhams Sons & Coaches depot area director in Bourton-on-the Water told BBC Radio Gloucestershire: "Of the 15 buses, we've got five double-deckers and the remaining ten are a make-up of different length single deck vehicles, based on the the routes that we're looking to to operate them on."

Hopefully [the experience will be] a lot quieter because there's no engine noise.

"It will be a greener journey as well with the environmental benefits it offers. Also, zero emissions then that's a huge benefit to the local local area."

"There's [also] no kind of imposed cost on to the passengers."

Robert Llewellyn, from the BBC's Red Dwarf programme and Channel 4's Scrapheap Challenge, is also an expert on electric vehicles.

He said: "I'm really thrilled to hear that Pulham's are doing this because my children used to catch the school bus every morning into Bourton-on-the-Water on a Pulham's bus and it was diesel."

"The fact that those will eventually be electric is very reassuring."

"They are cheaper vehicles to run and to maintain - it's just fact."

"One of the things I've really noticed is the quality of the air in London when I visit. You walk past a line of red double-deckers and there's no noise there's no smell, which is a huge improvement."

The Department for Transport (DfT) said zero-emission buses will also be delivered to Go Ahead subsidiaries in Plymouth, Gloucestershire, East Yorkshire and London.

The DfT stated that, for every vehicle manufactured, 10 trees would be planted in the towns and cities where the buses are deployed.

Matt Carney, chief executive of Go-Ahead Bus, said the investment would "accelerate the transition to zero-emission fleet across the UK".

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