Mayor Sadiq Khan unveils London’s first hydrogen double-decker bus
London mayor Sadiq Khan has unveiled the capital's first double-decker hydrogen bus as part of a commitment to phase out diesel buses.
They will be trialled on London's roads next year and the mayor wants other cities to follow suit.
No more pure diesel double-decker buses will be added to the capital's fleet from 2018 and all new single-deck buses will be zero-emission.
Khan said:
I want London to become a world leader in hydrogen and electric bus technology.
I’m implementing hard-hitting measures to clean-up London’s toxic air and it’s great that more cities are getting on board to phase out the procurement of pure diesel buses which sends a clear signal that only the cleanest technologies are wanted in our cities.
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London has committed to procuring around 300 zero emission buses by 2020, with 51 battery electric buses recently going into service (on the 507/521 route).
Eleven other major cities including New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Copenhagen and Cape Town have already begun moves to phase out their procurement of pure diesel buses by the end of 2020. And Paris, Madrid and Mexico City have committed to removing diesel buses from their cities by 2025.
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As part of the mayor's focus on air pollution, Khan wants all London buses to meet the Ultra-Low Emission Zone standard during 2020.
While greener buses often have higher up-front capital and infrastructure costs than polluting diesel buses, to help address this the C40 Climate Change Leadership Group of Cities has announced it will host a Finance Academy in April to help cities unlock funding for more zero emission buses and the supporting infrastructure.
(Source: Greater London Authority)