What assessment has the Minister made of expanding the electric zero emissions busses to mid and north Wales?
We are already in the process of decarbonising the bus fleet, including in Mid and North Wales, to meet our bus fleet emissions targets and to make bus travel more desirable.
We recently provided capital grant to Gwynedd Council for the purchase of fully electric buses for use on the TrawsCymru strategic bus network. Gwynedd Council were awarded £4.1 million for the purchase of 6 electric buses and the construction of a dedicated depot. These new electric buses will be introduced later this year and replace older diesel buses on a key route linking Caernarfon – Porthmadog – Blaenau Ffestiniog.
The cost of obtaining suitable connections to the electricity grid will likely be more challenging in rural areas of Wales. Work is commencing by Transport for Wales to map out the grid connections that will be required.
Officials are also developing plans to deliver against Net Zero Wales’ (NZW), our plan to decarbonise the Welsh economy. The targets for bus decarbonisation within NZW are:
· The whole Traws Cymru bus fleet to be zero tailpipe emission by 2026.
· The most polluting 50% of service buses to be replaced by a zero tailpipe emission bus fleet by 2028.
· The remaining 50% of the service bus fleet to be zero emission by 2035.
· To investigate opportunities to reduce the emissions of the less polluting service and school transport buses before their replacement before 2035.
· To review the policy for home to school transport before the autumn of 2022 and bring forward costed plans to replace the balance of the school fleet by 2035.
To assist in the delivery of the NZW targets the Minister for Economy and I agreed to the establishment of a Task and Finish Group (TFG) to develop plans for Bus Fleet De-carbonisation and Demand Aggregation. Based on initial recommendations from the TfG, we have allocated budgets for bus fleet replacement over the next few years, this budget rising to £60m pa from 2023/24.