How fast – or slowly – is Kent getting towards a zero-emission bus network? The UK Government announced a scheme (ZEBRA) to fund zero-emission buses in 2021. KCC put in a successful bid in the first round of grants and got money which was used for Fastrack electric buses in Thameside and Dover. But KCC got nothing in the second round of ZEBRA, and instead will be stuck with the diesel buses of Stagecoach for the rest of the Kent routes for years to come.
Neighbour envy
The Oxford bus company (GoAhead) have ordered/put in an EOI [an expression of interest] for 104 Wrightbus EVs that will be made in Northern Ireland. Stagecoach have done the same with an order for 55 Alexander Dennis 400 EV buses.
Meanwhile Stagecoach has ordered 200 Euro 6 diesel buses to replace some of their fleet of existing Alexander Dennis double deck buses. Euro 6 standards date from 2015 and are eight years old.
Pre- and post-Brexit
2015 was before the Brexit vote, and the social, economic and climatic conditions that were experienced at that time, were completely different to those being experienced today. Bus services in 2015 were more frequent, the network was more extensive, and the outlook for bus services was much more promising. Many of the housing developments that Kent Highways has permitted, unaltered in terms of access and infrastructure capacity, were not in prospect in 2015 and, of course, since 2015 the number of motor vehicles and their use has continued to rise, as bus services have decreased.
Overseas ownership
Both Stagecoach and the GoAhead group are now owned by overseas interests over which the UK has little ‘control’. You can see the unfolding of a change in policy at least with Stagecoach. Since March 2022, some of the senior management at Stagecoach have now left the business and there is now an emphasis on intensive urban services as opposed to operating a wider regional network. This is shown by the investment in EVs for Oxford, the purchase of operations in London, and a steep decline in regional bus services, especially in East Kent.
Old buses never die…
As things currently stand in Kent, diesel bus operations will soldier on to at least until 2038 (when I shall be 88 – that is assuming I am still around and there is still a bus service network left requiring buses; neither possibility can be assured).
This is calculated by taking the service life of a bus (15 years or with Stagecoach 18 + years) and working upwards from the approximate delivery and commissioning dates for the 200 double deck buses of mid 2023 to early 2024. In effect, this will mean that for the foreseeable future, the only electric vehicles operating on fare stage services will be the five EVs in the Dover Fastrack service, and those in North Kent.
Capital vs East Kent
Of course, Transport for London (TfL) will have decarbonised their services in Kent long before 2038. Perhaps their extension of ULEZ (the Ultra-Low Emission Zone) has a point. The average age of a TfL bus is eight years and under. TfL are also re-motoring some of their fleet by installing electric power packs and drive trains. Kent could do the same, especially with the remaining rural services it subsidises.
East Kent will remain as always, an antediluvian pocket of underinvestment and levelling down. The money, recently allocated in levelling up, will not be beneficial if connectivity is reduced. One-off, short-term schemes, will not deliver prosperity, social cohesion, and increased wellbeing, if we continue to underinvest in our public transport infrastructure.
