London launches $111M program to upgrade around 5000 older buses to Euro VI emissions standard
29 June 2017
The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, launched a £86.1-million (US$111 million) program to retrofit around 5,000 older buses with a new exhaust system that will upgrade the vehicles to Euro VI emissions standards. By September 2020 the entire bus fleet will be at least Euro VI standard, with the emissions from the retrofitte buses cut by up to 95%.
Transport for London (TfL) will work with bus operators and five chosen suppliers to install the new bespoke exhaust systems which will reduce nitrogen oxides and particulate matter. Diesel Particulate filters will also be installed alongside this Selective Catalytic Reduction (SCR) equipment to reduce air pollution.
Currently 700-800 new low-emission buses are being introduced to the London fleet every year, with diesel-only buses being phased out. From next year, all new double-deck buses will be hybrid, electric or hydrogen. In addition all buses within the central London Ultra-Low Emission Zone will be Euro VI hybrid standard by 2019.
Last week, the Mayor also set out in his draft Transport Strategy that by 2037 at the latest, all 9,200 buses across London will be zero emission.
We know that pollution from our roads is a major contributor to London’s toxic air. That’s why we are working so hard to introduce new clean buses on our streets and why we are continually looking for innovative ways to clean up the most polluting buses. There’s no doubt that by cutting the emissions of more than half of the fleet by up to 95 percent, this innovative retrofit programme is going to make a huge difference to Londoners.
—The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan
Following a competitive tender process, the five suppliers appointed to retrofit the exhaust systems are Amminex, Baumot Twintec, Eminox, HJS and Proventia.
More than 40 new apprenticeships are being created to support the program. The apprentices will be employed by the five suppliers and will work across the project a range of areas, from installation and servicing to management.
One third of London’s bus fleet runs on B20 biodiesel; in addition the fleet includes 2,500 hybrid buses, 71 electric buses, and eight hydrogen fuel cell buses.Earlier this year, the Mayor announced an inaugural Low Emission Bus Zone in Putney. This is the first of 12 set to be introduced at air quality hotspots across London. Only buses that meet the toughest emission standards will be permitted to run within the zones, which also have effective bus priority measures in place to keep bus delays to a minimum and reduce unnecessary pollution caused by sitting in traffic.
From 2019, all TfL buses operating in central London in the Ultra-Low Emission Zone (ULEZ) will be ultra-low emission hybrid. Because of the way the network works, a significant number of double-decker buses operating in inner London will therefore be hybrid and many in outer London too.
It is also proposed that all single-decker buses operating in central London will be zero emission at tailpipe by 2020, taking the number of these vehicles up to around 300.
It isa good idea - fix the worst ones, even if they do not end up perfect, a major improvement should help a lot.
You almost need a task force that can go round marking vehicles for either removal or renewal to get the very worst ones off the roads.
The problem here is that it gives enormous power to the people implementing it, and also puts them in harm's way if they have to deal with violent people who fear losing their livelihood.
But there is no point in putting 1000 electric buses on the streets if you leave another 1000 heavily polluting bin trucks (or whatever) in place.
Posted by: mahonj | 29 June 2017 at 08:48 AM
You have to start somewhere and this is as good a place as any.
Meanwhile Chinese made batteries and e-buses are getting better, cheaper and more competitive with diesel units.
Posted by: HarveyD | 29 June 2017 at 09:48 AM
Indeed. The trick is to remove the worst vehicles while replacing them with better ones.
There is no point in replacing 5 year old buses with E-buses if you leave 15 year old buses on the roads.
Posted by: mahonj | 29 June 2017 at 10:26 AM
Changing a large city bus fleet will take up to 15+ years in most places (except in China where they do it much faster?)
We have barely started with 3 Volvo Canada city e-buses. School buses (a much lager fleet) do it faster with 100+ Lion locally built lighter composites e-buses.
Both city and school buses have a very long way (15+ years) to go.
Posted by: HarveyD | 30 June 2017 at 07:46 AM