Britain’s first biogas-powered double-deck bus has become a familiar sight on the streets of Sunderland, as it is undergoes a six-week trial (due to end in mid-September).
Stage Coach North East (
www.stagecoachbus.com) and Scania (
www.scania.com) have joined forces to test the ‘state of the art’ bus on the X24 express service, which runs from Sunderland to Newcastle.
The bus has been developed over a two-year period by Scania — the Swedish commercial-vehicle manufacturer — specifically for the UK market. With emissions of CO
2 reduced by up to 84%, the vehicle can operate on biogas created from household food waste and waste water.
Gary Chisholm, engineering director at Stagecoach North East’s Sunderland depot, said: “The company is committed to reducing its environmental impact; with 40 single-deck gas buses already in our fleet at Sunderland, this is a further demonstration of our green credentials.
“Trialling new low-emission technologies to reduce air pollution and CO
2 emissions helps us move towards our environmental goals.”
Scania has a long history of producing gas-powered vehicles for European markets, but developing a product to supply to bus operators in the UK was quite a challenge.
Mark Oliver, Scania’s UK general manager (bus and coach fleet sales), says: “Across Europe, single-deck buses with gas tanks on the roof are a common sight; for the UK, we had to accommodate the tanks within the double-decker’s bodywork.”