BIRMINGHAM AIRPORT GETS FUNDING FOR ELECTRIC BUSES
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Birmingham Airport has been awarded £1.4 million in funding from the UK government to support the introduction of electric powered buses at the gateway.
The funding – courtesy of the Ultra Low Emission Bus Scheme administered by the Department for Transport (DfT) and the Office for Low Emission Vehicles (OLEV) – will support the electrification of the airport’s landside bus fleet with ultra-low emission buses.
The buses are primarily used to transport passengers to the airport’s car parks.
The grant will partly fund the purchase of electric buses as well as the installation of dedicated bus charging infrastructure.
The remaining investment, to achieve this infrastructure, will be made by Birmingham Airport.
Airport CEO, Nick Barton, said: “Since 2012, Birmingham Airport has reduced its CO2per passenger by 20% per passenger. This funding will support us in working towards lowering our CO2per passenger even further which is just fantastic.
“We have made significant customer service improvements across the Airport to increase capacity and improve passenger experience, with the vision of positioning Birmingham as Europe’s leading airport. The electric buses form part of this vision, not to mention their sustainability benefits being ultra-low emission.”
The airport is advanced in negotiations with a bus manufacturer and aims to have the necessary infrastructure works undertaken to commence the fully electric bus service in Autumn 2019.