London Mayor launches England's first hydrogen buses

London mayor Sadiq Khan and Transport for London (TfL) has launched the country's first set of hydrogen-powered double-decker buses in a bid to turn the city's buses net-zero by 2030.

The scheme has been retrofitting buses with greener engines since 2018. The 50 hydrogen buses will join an existing fleet of 500 electric buses with aims of reducing pollution and helping deliver the UK's climate ambitions.

This marks a further push towards sustainability on behalf of Khan, who earlier this year unveiled overhauls to the London tube in a bit to reduce emissions, improve air quality and lower pollution within the UK's largest city.

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The buses have been manufactured by Wrightbus from Northern Ireland with the hydrogen being produced at Air Liquide's plant in Runcorn, harnessing waste hydrogen as a by-product from an industrial chlor-alkali plant.

A new station set up by Danish engineering firm Nel Hydrogen will top up each hydrogen fuel cell once per day in around five minutes.

The mayor claims the switch to greener engines will lead to "smoother, quieter" journeys.

TfL offered a £12 million investment in the scheme alongside other major investments from various European bodies and £1 million from the Government’s Office for Zero Emission Vehicles. 

Khan said the scheme will directly aid in the creation of jobs in London and further afield while being driven by a desire to clean the city's air, particularly along major worker and school commutes.

"We have made real progress in London to clean up our air, but we still have a long way to go because toxic air pollution in our city is still leading to thousands of premature deaths every year and is stunting the growth of children’s lung," Khan said.

"This is a great demonstration of how tackling air pollution and the climate crisis and boosting economic growth is about regions working together, investing in the very latest technology," he added.

The use of fully hydrogen-powered buses was originally announced back in 2018, but the project appears to have been pushed back owing to difficulties.

It was originally to be delivered with 12 low emissions zones, where vehicles would have to do their best to reduce nitrous oxide emissions by as much as 84%, with an emphasis on having cleaner air along school commutes.

At this original briefing, Khan said: "Safeguarding the health of Londoners is vital and I’m doing everything in my power both to transform London’s bus fleet and to target areas with the worst pollution.

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“I want other cities around the world to work with me on demanding cleaner bus technology and I urge our government to take their responsibility seriously and introduce a national diesel scrappage scheme to deliver the step change we need on the dirtiest diesel vehicles.”

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