Politicians welcome Sheffield £33m government investment in zero-emission buses
The announcement of more than 180 new zero-emission buses for Sheffield and South Yorkshire has been welcomed by leading local politicians as a real boost that will tackle air pollution.
Transport minister Heidi Alexander visited the First Bus depot in Olive Grove, Sheffield today (March 12) to announce the £33.42 million investment. That will pay for 186 zero-emission buses.
Sitting on board a ‘green’ bus, she said: “We know that people want an affordable, reliable, clean bus network. Just walking around the Olive Grove depot, I can see the age of some of the buses here.
“It is really important that we reduce emissions that are coming from the bus fleet. Being able to work with Oliver Coppard, the Mayor of South Yorkshire, and with Sheffield City Council is such an important thing to give people here the public transport network that they deserve.
“We gave Sheffield £20 million last year to invest in new electric buses, and they have done a really good job of moving forward with letting the contracts for those new buses; we want to see results quickly.
“We want new electric buses out on the roads and South Yorkshire has proven their capability to deliver. We also want to make sure that we are investing in areas where we need to continue to improve air quality.
Cleaner
“As a government, we need to make sure that we are reducing carbon as well. A much cleaner bus fleet is really important.
“With Oliver Coppard’s ambitious plans to franchise the bus network and improve the quality of bus services in the same way that Andy Burnham has done in Greater Manchester, we thought that this money could be really well spent here.
“I do think that people in Sheffield and South Yorkshire deserve that high-quality public transport network.”
The minister said that the Labour Party is committed to bringing the railways back into public ownership, taking over three private operators this year and three next year.
“That is going to save about £150 million a year which had previously been leaking to the private sector train operators.
“We are going to be setting up Great British Railways, which is a publicly-owned company to better integrate the management of the infrastructure, tracks, and signalling with the day-to-day running of the trains.
“Of course, we are giving public control of their buses back to people in Sheffield and South Yorkshire. That will mean that the Mayor of South Yorkshire, Oliver Coppard, will be able to set the routes, fares, and timetables, and be able to better integrate the buses with the trams and the trains.
Agenda
“I think this is a key part of this Labour government’s agenda to get public transport back into public control because it is a key part of getting our economy functioning properly and firing on all cylinders.”
She continued: “People often want an alternative to the car. Having affordable, reliable, high-quality public transport is the sign of a really thriving city and a good place to live.
“That is why we made the announcement early in the year about Northern Powerhouse Rail as well, creating a “turn up and go” service for people at Sheffield Station and making sure that we integrate with the tram network.
“We think that we can make a dramatic improvement to the quality of public transport here, and that is why we are so keen to work with Oliver and Sheffield Council moving forward.”
Sheffield City Council leader Coun Tom Hunt said: “This investment will allow us to go quicker to take old, dirty, diesel polluting buses off the streets of Sheffield and replace them with zero-emission clean buses.
“Over the last three years, we have reduced the nitrogen dioxide levels in the city by 23%.
Fundamental
“This will allow us to go further and continue our work to make sure the air that people are breathing in Sheffield is clean. Clean air is fundamental for having a happy, healthy life.
“One in 20 deaths in the city is attributable to unclean, dirty air. This is a welcome investment that’ll allow us to keep on improving the air that we all breathe.”
Mayor Coppard said: “The council have taken a really brave decision under Tom’s leadership to introduce that clean air zone and I know not everybody was in favor of that clean air zone.
“Of course we’ve asked the public of South Yorkshire to play their part in getting levels of air quality back into safe limits, particularly for kids.
“Because if you live on one of those routes with dirty air, if you’re a child, it’s like passively breathing 10 cigarettes a day, and that’s going to obviously affect their development and we know nobody in South Yorkshire wants that.
Solution
“So this is about the government, about us playing our part in that solution as well.
“That’s about saying actually we’ve got to get that air quality back into safe limits. We’ve got to keep it there.
“We’ve got to go further because if this was dirty water that was killing one in 20 people in South Yorkshire, there would be a national outcry rightly.
But because it’s clean air, it’s harder to spot, of course. And so this is about solving those problems, giving passengers a better experience, giving South Yorkshire the bus network it deserves, and making sure that absolutely everybody has the opportunity to stay here and go far.”
Mayor Coppard said the new buses “will come online as soon as we can make it happen, but certainly by September 2027.
“September 2027 is the date of franchising. That’s when we bring the buses back under public control.
“People will spot at that point all the new buses running around South Yorkshire, particularly in Sheffield and in Doncaster. But we’ll do that sooner if we can.