Oxford: First buses in electric fleet set to arrive in September

The first electric buses, set to form a fleet of 159, will be brought in on routes in Oxford from September.

An area from Cumnor to the west and Wheatley to the east of the city, Kidlington to the north and Sandford to the south will be served by the fleet.

Eight of the double-decker buses will be open-topped, to run on the city's sightseeing tour route.

The £82.5m scheme is being paid for by the government, the council and bus firms.

The government awarded Oxfordshire County Council £32.8m in March last year as part of its Zero Emission Bus Regional Areas (ZEBRA) scheme.

The council has put in £6m and a further £43.7m has come from bus companies.

Oxfordshire County Council said the scheme had been finalised after it signed contracts between the bus firms, manufacturers and its six traffic filters were given the go-ahead

The new buses form part of the council's plans to get the county to net zero carbon emissions before 2050 to tackle climate change.

The council said once the whole fleet is up and running most services across the Oxford Smartzone will be operated by battery electric buses.

Follow BBC South on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram. Send your story ideas to [email protected].