July 26 2024

Paul White, Director CPT Scotland, and current chair of the Scottish Bus Decarbonisation Taskforce heralds a really good news story for the sector.

On Tuesday morning, the Scottish First Minister John Swinney attended Stagecoach East Scotland’s Dunfermline depot to formally announce the award of the Scottish Zero Emission Bus Scheme (ScotZEB) and speak to members of the winning consortium.

The winning bid, led by CPT supplier member Zenobe, included a number of CPT operator members:  Stagecoach, McGill’s Ember, Maynes Coaches, Premier Coaches and D& E Coaches.

The £41.7m award will see 252 new zero emission buses and coaches enter the Scottish fleet. The consortium has also committed to opening up their charging infrastructure to third party fleet operators, creating a Scotland-wide rapid-charging network for use by buses, coaches and HGVs.

Every £1 of government support will be met with £3.20 of private sector investment and the new vehicles are expected to save 605,595 tonnes of carbon emissions over the next 15 years.

The ScotZEB scheme may be specific to Scotland but should be of wider interest. It is the first zero-emission scheme to open itself up to bids from community transport and coach operators. Another aspect of the scheme worth highlighting is that both final bids were based on a leasing model. Will this be the direction of travel for English and Welsh decarbonisation?

I want to focus on the positive but should point out that a ‘winner takes all’ approach to the scheme budget meant there was a second consortium that bid for £41.7m that was unsuccessful.  That is a lot of potential investment that won’t be unlocked on this occasion.

The Scottish Government’s position is that this is the final round of government support for bus and coach decarbonisation. When all the vehicles from this round are in service, the Scottish bus fleet should be around 26% zero emission, which is fantastic. However, the majority of the Scottish bus and coach fleets, and many operators, have yet to begin the decarbonisation journey and this must be a just transition.

My hope is that the Bus Decarbonisation Taskforce will have the opportunity to scrutinise the business case for decarbonisation without government support, take forward the elements that are deliverable, and make recommendations for the type of government support or actions that may be needed to facilitate this process.

Tuesday was a great day and a fantastic boost for bus and coach but we’re still on the journey to net zero and we have a way to go.