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Depots being built for fleets of electric buses

Bea Swallow
BBC News, West of England
BBC Doug Claringbold wearing black rimmed glasses, a blue shirt and a black blazer underneath a hi-vis yellow jacket. He is smiling at the camera, and standing in the Weston bus depot in front of two diesel buses which will soon be replaced with electric ones. BBC
Doug Claringbold said the construction work was "the start of an exciting journey"

A bus company is building a charging depot in preparation for a fleet of electric buses, as part of a £15m sustainable transport scheme.

The bus depot in Weston-super-Mare, North Somerset, is being transformed by First Bus ahead of launching 24 new electric buses on the local network next year.

In addition, £44m is being invested in electrifying the operator's Hengrove depot in Bristol, in preparation for 74 electric buses arriving on the city's network.

The zero-emission buses will replace older diesel models, saving 75 tonnes of CO2 per bus each year, the company said, adding that across the entire fleet, it equated to taking 5,250 cars off the road.

A red crane lifting a huge metal gantry into place to recharge electric buses at the Weston bus depot. There are white vans parked on the site and red barriers preventing anyone from walking underneath the gantries.
Cranes have been lowering 400 tonnes of steel at the Weston depot to create huge electric charging ports

Work at the Weston site is expected to be completed by March, with the electric buses arriving soon after. The Hengrove site is expected to be completed in July.

As well as supplying the sites with increased power, the projects will see almost 400 tonnes of steel used across multiple gantries, which will distribute power to charge the new buses.

Both projects will cost First Bus £59m in total, with £8.7m being invested from the government's Zero Emission Bus Regional Areas (ZEBRA) scheme.

First Bus An artist's impression of the Weston depot when completed. It is a white and grey drawing, showing where the buses are kept. The electric buses are drawn in purple, and are lined up beside each other. Above them are metal bridge structures where the charging ports will be. On the left there is a large warehouse building and several cars parked in spaces.First Bus
The new buses mean 33% of the total fleet in Weston will be electric

Doug Claringbold, West of England managing director for First Bus, said the project would be a big step towards meeting the company's commitment of having a zero-emissions fleet by 2035.

They would also be cleaner, quieter, and kinder to the environment, he said.

"What that brings is not just the environmental benefits, in terms of air quality and reduced carbon emissions, but it also provides a much better experience for our customers and drivers," he said.

"We operate over 600 electric buses across the UK and their experiences are really good. They are proving incredibly popular."

First Bus An artist's impression of the finished Hengrove depot. It is a white and grey drawing, showing the large site where the buses are kept. The electric buses are drawn in purple, and are lined up beside each other in six rows. Above them are metal bridge structures where the charging ports will be. First Bus
Once the Hengrove depot is complete, 65% of the area's buses will be zero-emission

Commercial director Rob Pymm said the electric buses will also be more reliable than the current diesel vehicles.

"They don't break down," he said.

"There's less that can go wrong and the customers are going to see that. You want your bus to get you from A to B every day, and electric buses can do that."

The multi-million pound investment into the region comes after passenger numbers increased by more than five million from January to November 2024.

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