Trial Sunday bus service linking Foxwood/Woodthorpe and Askham Bar extended for a month

First have announced that the trial bus which links Foxwood, Woodthorpe & Bishopthorpe with Tesco and Askham Bar will continue to run until the end of January 2017.

The services will run on:

  • Tuesday 27 December 2016
  • Bank Holiday Monday, 2 January 2017
  • Sundays 8, 15, 22 and 29 January 2017

Download Service 500 timetable

The free service, numbered 500, runs with an electric bus, subject to availability, to reduce noise and emissions. It was due to finish on 18th December

500-bus-service

The world’s first electric retrofitted double decker sight seeing bus launches in York!

One of York’s renowned City Sightseeing buses has become the first double-decker bus in the world to get an electric makeover, thanks to a government grant.

Electric bus

Electric bus

The City Sightseeing bus, operated by Transdev, will be in operation from September after becoming the first double decker to be converted from diesel to pure electric with lithium ion batteries, similar to those used by mobile phones.

The company got  £75,433 in October 2013 to convert the 15-year old City Sightseeing bus to fully electric drive, after successfully bidding for the Department for Transport’s (DfT) Clean Bus Technology Fund. The bus will travel all day without needing to charge.

Baroness Kramer (LibDem Transport Minister) said: “This is the first electric double decker bus conversion in the World. This Sightseeing bus will not only showcase York’s many attractions, but also the huge benefits that low carbon vehicles can bring to our cities.

“The UK is leading the electric charge when it comes to plug-in transport. I am delighted to see York sharing our vision, fully supporting an industry which is also a driver for economic growth, while bringing important environmental benefits such as an improved air quality”.

The electric retrofitted bus will eliminate the emission of 33 tons of CO2 and more than 535kg of poisonous NOx per year and will also reduce operating costs of the vehicle by more than £20k per year.
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York is first city in the UK to get electric bus makeover

Sight seeing bus on Lendal Bridge

One of York’s renowned City Sight Seeing buses will become the first double-decker bus in the country to get an electric makeover, thanks to a grant made by the Coalition government.

Reliance buses will also benefit from the same pot of funding, with the installation of new exhausts that will help reduce poor emissions in the city.

Details of the supplementary allocation were released 3 weeks ago.

A City Sight Seeing bus, operated by Transdev, will become the first double decker in the UK to be converted from diesel to pure electric with lithium ion batteries, similar to those used by mobile phones.

Converting from diesel to electric will have substantial benefits for air quality as the bus is used intensively in the city centre. The cost of the conversion will be £75k, but will save an estimated £15k a year in fuel costs.

The remaining DfT funding will be used to retrofit two diesel buses operated by Reliance, along the A19 route,with Selective Catalytic Reduction (SCR) exhaust technology which reduces emissions of small particles.

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