UK bus companies won’t buy diesel buses after 2025

The Confederation of Passenger Transport (CPT) represents 95 per cent of the bus industry including major companies Arriva, National Express, Stagecoach, Go Ahead and First Group, and has pledged to improve operations and reduce emissions of its services by 2025.

According to the CPT, only three per cent of the UK bus fleet is currently ultra-low or zero emission and by 2025, the CPT has announced that it will never buy diesel buses again. 

Although bus travel remains the most popular choice of UK public transport, passenger numbers have not increased due to a decline in central funding which has led to higher ticket prices and less frequent services.

The confederation wants to further promote the use of buses for daily journeys. To do this, the confederation has outlined that travel costs for job seekers and apprentices will be reduced, services will be sped up and daily/weekly travel will be capped in urban areas.

Graham Vidler, Chief Executive CPT, said: “Buses are already the cleanest form of road transport and have a crucial role to play in tackling environmental issues and helping to meet important targets on improving air quality and reducing carbon emissions.

“If everyone switched just one car journey a month to bus, there would be one billion fewer car journeys and a saving of two million tonnes of CO₂ a year.”

At present, more than three million people use bus travel daily, be that to work, school or college. CPT has announced that it is aiming to increase current bus use to over five billion bus journeys a year by 2030, an increase of over one billion passenger journeys.