West Sussex County Council is to add more than £3.7m to its capital programme to help bus companies buy 27 zero emission buses (ZEBs).
Known as the ZEBRA 2 project, the scheme will see 16 electric ZEBs and supporting infrastructure operated by Brighton & Hove Buses out of the Conway Street depot, and 11 electric ZEBs and supporting infrastructure operated by Stagecoach South out of its Portsmouth depot.
The council’s contribution will be put towards the routes which will operate into West Sussex from Brighton & Hove.
The project was approved on Thursday (March 19) by Joy Dennis, cabinet member for highways & transport.
Around £3.48m of the money will come from the Department for Transport, with a £270,000 contribution from the council.
The ZEBs will be operated by the bus companies and will need to be up and running within two years of receiving the government funding. They will also need to be operated on their respective routes for at least five years.
Upgrades will be made to Brighton & Hove Buses route number 2 from Steyning – Shoreham – City Centre – Rottingdean, and route number 46 from Southwick – Portslade – Hove – City Centre – Hollingbury – Coldean.
Stagecoach South’s high-frequency inter-urban 700 route from Chichester to Portsmouth via Southbourne – Emsworth – Havant will have its fleet upgraded.
Some £70,000 of the council’s contribution will come from Section 106 money which was paid by developers who built in areas which are served by the bus routes. The other £198,000 will come from the Climate Mitigation & Adaptation fund.
A report from Matt Davey, service director for highways, transport & planning, said: “The alternative of not implementing the ZEBRA 2 project is that no ZEBs would be purchased by the commercial bus operators over the same timescale, meaning [the council’s] wider transport decarbonisation objectives would not start to be met in the time-scale of the current policy and would be more difficult to achieve in the long run.”
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