Crawley to benefit from 20 new eco-friendly buses

The boost will see new eco-friendly vehicles on Brighton & Hove Buses' Metrobus Fastway routes 10 and 20, which run a 24-hour service between Gatwick Airport and Manor Royal Business District and Crawley town centre, Horley and residential suburbs.

The announcement was made today (February 6) by the Department for Transport (DfT) as part of a £48m pot for 263 low emission buses across the UK.

It said the new buses would enable Brighton & Hove Buses to retire the last of the Euro 3 buses and redeploy current Volvo diesel buses elsewhere on the network.

Patrick Warner, Brighton & Hove Buses and Metrobus head of innovation strategy, said: “We welcome the announcement that we’ve been successful in our bid for a contribution towards our plans for 20 zero-emission fuel cell electric buses. These single deckers would be introduced on our 24-hour, high frequency Metrobus Fastway services to and from Gatwick Airport and Manor Royal Business District in Crawley.

“This is a crucial step in our ambitious bid to operate a zero-emission fleet by 2030 and it will enable us to be the first commercial operator in the world to independently introduce this technology. We now look forward to advancing these plans.”

Buses Minister Nusrat Ghani said: “This government is doing more than ever before to reduce emissions across all modes of transport and I’m delighted to see the bus industry putting itself at the forefront of this.

“Nineteen successful bidders across England and Wales will receive funding to purchase new low emission buses and supporting infrastructure, such as charge points.”