London’s first hydrogen double-decker bus

On 30 November, the Mayor of London introduced London’s first zero-emissions double decker bus at the London Bus Summit.

The announcement is part of Mayor Sadiq Khan’s commitment to entirely phase out diesel buses to combat the capital’s air pollution problems.

The new hydrogen buses, developed by UK bus manufacturer Wrightbus, will be trialled on London’s roads throughout 2017, with the hope that other cities will follow suit.

51 battery electric buses have recently been added to popular bus routes around the city, and London has committed to procuring 300 zero-emission buses by 2020.

No more diesel double-decker buses will be added to the fleet from 2018 and all new single-deck buses will be electric.

Mayor Sadiq Khan said: “I want London to become a world leader in hydrogen and electric bus technology.”

He added: “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.”

Eleven other major cities including New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Amsterdam, Copenhagen and Cape Town, have also agreed to phase out their procurement of pure diesel buses by the end of 2020. 

Paris, Madrid and Mexico City have committed to removing diesel buses from their cities by 2025.

At the summit, attended by representatives from several foreign cities, Mr Khan urged bus manufacturers to focus more on developing a new generation of zero-emission buses and to make cleaner bus technology cheaper.

Ms Lan Marie Nguyen Berg, Oslo’s vice Mayor for environment and transport, said: “Oslo stands with London as cities taking climate action. Zero-emission buses are vital for the climate and better for our cities.”

The Lord Mayor of Copenhagen, Frank Jensen, said: “I am pleased London and Copenhagen are joining forces in the important task of reducing air pollution, noise and climate change by committing to deploy zero emission buses in our cities.“