After obtaining new funding, the West Midlands is expected to operate the UK’s largest hydrogen bus fleet.
The region will receive 124 new buses as part of a switchover funded by the Department for Transport.
24 new vehicles will be articulated tram-style buses that will operate on a new bus priority route connecting Walsall, Birmingham, and Solihull.
It follows a previous £50 million investment to transform Coventry into the UK’s first all-electric bus city.
The cash complements private bus industry investment over the next three years to expedite the transition away from diesel buses and toward cleaner, greener vehicles, according to the West Midlands Combined Authority.
The region was “already setting the standard,” it stated, with the purchase by Birmingham City Council of 20 hydrogen double decker buses operated by National Express West Midlands.
This will result in the region having 144 hydrogen buses on the road, the “biggest fleet in the western world,” the statement claimed.
