London’s bus fleet is undergoing a major change as it is made more environmentally friendly. Sadiq Khan has promised to ensure the iconic red vehicles are entirely zero emission by 2030.
The Mayor of London says that, due to his plan being brought forward, previously being worked to a 2034 deadline, some older buses are being pulled out of services earlier than planned. Mr Khan told the London Assembly on May 29: “Transport for London (TfL) stopped ordering new diesel or hybrid buses in 2020 and I have pledged to achieve a fully zero-emission bus fleet by 2030.
“With the previous 2034 target, TfL would be replacing the fleet as each vehicle got to its end of life. With the accelerated 2030 target, around 25 per cent of the current bus fleet would leave earlier than expected.
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“TfL anticipates that most of those vehicles would move to other parts of the UK. As they are Euro VI compliant, they would be in demand in other cities where buses are older and more polluting.”
As of May 2024, there are 1,458 zero-emission buses in London. This represents around 16 per cent of the bus fleet.
Recent ‘severe shortage’ of drivers
The mayor also admitted to London Assembly Members that there had recently been a ‘severe shortage’ of bus drivers during 2022 and 2023. He added: “This has since been largely resolved. More recently bus speeds have fallen due to road traffic congestion which caused a reduction in operated kilometres, and it is why I have a clear commitment in my manifesto to develop a plan for bus journey times.”
Mr Khan provided figures that suggested the number of bus trips not operated in financial year 2022/23 was 769,000. This was 2.1 per cent of the total number of bus trips scheduled – around 36 million.
In 2022/23, 90.6 per cent of trips ‘operated in full’, 7.3 per cent were operated ‘in part’ and 2.1 per cent did not operate at all. This resulted in a total 96.0 per cent operated kilometres compared with the full schedule, the mayor said.
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