Government invests nearly £38 million to bring 319 new green buses to communities across England

As posted elsewhere, funding has been given for 319 more buses for the 2025/26 financial year.

Breakdowns by operator aren't all confirmed yet, but so far we have:
Diamond Bus - 8 buses
Falcon Bus - 8 buses
First - 160 buses (including 27 repowered)
Go Ahead Group - 45 buses
Reading Buses - 8 buses
Stagecoach - 94 buses
White Bus - 4 buses
(317 confirmed out of 319)

It seems like many bids are an extension of ZEBRA2 funding, which may give an indication for the allocation of remaining funding. That noted, funding for the WECA is for two depots which are currently unelectrified.

Bids for Nottinghamshire, Devon and Leicestershire are currently unclear, with contradicting information (or none at points).

West of England Combined Authority: £19.89 million for 160 buses
Hull City Council: £3.91 million for 42 buses
Nottinghamshire County Council: £2.68 million for 42 buses
Brighton and Hove City Council: £2.36 million for 13 buses
Staffordshire County Council: £2.21 million for nine buses
Surrey County Council: £1.74 million for 12 buses
Reading Borough Council: £1.35 million for eight buses
Isle of Wight Council: £1.29 million for nine buses
Wiltshire Council: £1.18 million for seven buses
Devon County Council: £772,000 for 10 buses
Torbay Council: £361,000 for six buses
Leicestershire County Council: £126,000 for one bus.

Route One

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Authority	Any Further Details?	Sources
West of England Combined Authority	All funding for First West of England, to be split between Bath and Lawrence Hill - includes 27 repowered (presumably) Streetdecks 22 routes in Bristol to be operated by electric buses: unsure if this includes current ZEBRA2 funding	1 2
Hull City Council	36 buses for Stagecoach East Midlands 6 buses for East Yorkshire	Hull City Council
Nottinghamshire County Council	42 buses for Stagecoach East Midlands?	2
Brighton and Hove City Council	13 double-decker buses for Brighton and Hove routes 5/5A/5B (part-conversion) and 6	Brighton and Hove City Council
Staffordshire County Council	8 single-decker buses for Diamond Bus routes 2, 8, 9 and X12 1 bus unaccounted for?	Staffordshire County Council
Surrey County Council	8 single-decker buses for Falcon Buses 4 Yutong E10 for White Bus route 555	Surrey County Council
Reading Borough Council	8 double-decker buses for Reading Buses route 26	SOURCE
Isle of Wight Council	9 double-decker buses for Southern Vectis routes 4, 8 and 37, almost certainly Wrightbus	Southern Vectis
Wiltshire Council	7 double-decker buses for Salisbury Reds route X4, almost certainly Wrightbus	Salisbury Reds
Devon County Council	10 double-decker buses for Stagecoach South West route 4 Potentially 10 buses for Plymouth Citybus? (worked out through group numbers)	Stagecoach South West 2
Torbay Council	6 buses for Stagecoach, type and routes unconfirmed	Torbay Council
Leicestershire County Council

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Updated 19/04/25

There's some interesting stuff in the First announcement for the West of England investment: the 27 Repowers go to Bath, and it says that Hengrove becomes "100% electric", which I'm not sure about: the U1 appears untouched by the allocations of electric buses in the article. The Airport Flyer services get electric buses later in the year (a Bristol Airport initiative I believe - the buses are starting to get branding that says "electric buses coming soon"). Much of the remaining Bristol City allocations will be the Scania gas buses, it seems, and thus the B9TLs look like their future is now short.

Either way, this is impressive and perhaps much-needed investment in the area. It will also, I suspect, substantially reduce the number of liveries around in the area!

Go-Ahead are quoted in the Route-One article (https://www.route-one.net/news/38-million-allocated-to-further-319-zero-emission-buses-in-england/) that there are vehicles for Plymouth, which I can only imagine means that the Devon investment is for them.

At least part of the Nottinghamshire is for Stagecoach (presumably building on the existing Mansfield order), but it was only mentioned in passing in a Stagecoach quote that I now cannot find!

Why is the taxpayer buying new vehicles for private companies? I’d rather the money was spent on route or fare subsidy.

HullRailMan said:

Why is the taxpayer buying new vehicles for private companies? I’d rather the money was spent on route or fare subsidy.

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They aren’t. They are providing a grant to cover a proportion of the DIFFERENCE between the cost of a diesel bus and an equivalent electric bus.

HullRailMan said:

Why is the taxpayer buying new vehicles for private companies? I’d rather the money was spent on route or fare subsidy.

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You could argue that everyone in the city benefits from upgrading diesel to electric buses by reducing air pollution, whereas subsidising fares only benefits the ~5% of travellers who are going by bus and don't have a free pass, making it a better use of public money.

Devon County Council funding for Plymouth is odd since DCC doesn’t cover Plymouth or Torbay which are both unitary authorities.

Stan Drews said:

They aren’t. They are providing a grant to cover a proportion of the DIFFERENCE between the cost of a diesel bus and an equivalent electric bus.

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So that’s still a direct benefit for a private company to replace an asset they’d have to replace themselves anyway.

stevieinselby said:

You could argue that everyone in the city benefits from upgrading diesel to electric buses by reducing air pollution, whereas subsidising fares only benefits the ~5% of travellers who are going by bus and don't have a free pass, making it a better use of public money.

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The air quality argument is marginal at best given the relatively small number of vehicles in question when compared to overall road vehicles in an urban area. Perhaps enhancing the bus network or reducing fares to make the bus more attractive would have a greater impact by encouraging modal switch.

HullRailMan said:

So that’s still a direct benefit for a private company to replace an asset they’d have to replace themselves anyway.

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The private company is still paying more than they would have had to pay if they were replacing like with like.
Let's say a new diesel bus costs £100k and a new electric bus costs £140k. Under this scheme, the bus company will get a grant of £30k but will have to spend £110k, which is more than they would have spent if they had just got a new diesel bus.

HullRailMan said:

So that’s still a direct benefit for a private company to replace an asset they’d have to replace themselves anyway.

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It really isn’t - and this is an approach previous and current governments seem to support.

Go Ahead are investing in 45 buses

Go-Ahead, in partnership with the Department for Transport and local authorities, will invest in an additional 45 zero-emissions buses for its operating companies in Hull, Salisbury, Brighton & Hove, Isle of Wight and Plymouth.

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This confirms that Stagecoach will take 36 buses of the Hull number as with the existing 19 from the original Zebra 2 funding will make 55. So East Yorkshire will have 6 buses from this additional funding

Here in Hull, we are delighted that the funding will support the roll out of 55 new electric buses.

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Surrey's allocation of 12 electric buses has been defined.


8 more E200EVs for Falcon Buses; quoted figure includes the previously-ordered 13.

Richard Telling, Managing Director of Falcon Buses said, “Through the partnership working with Surrey County Council (SCC), who have been awarded Department for Transport (DfT) ZEBRA 2 funding, we are now enhancing our roll out of zero Emission buses, introducing 21 electric buses into our fleet.

“Financial investment from Falcon Buses, together with SCC and DfT has enabled us to place orders with Alexander Dennis for the supply of their brand new Enviro 200 EV next generation bus and we will see electric buses operating on a number of our services from Spring 2026. Exciting times are ahead for Falcon operating new technology with electric buses, and we look forward to our customers coming on the journey with us.”

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Which means 4 extra vehicles for White Bus; these and the 6 already funded will be E10s.

Simon Rowland, CEO of White Bus said, “We are incredibly excited about our new electric vehicle fleet coming later this year. Not only is White Bus providing greener, cleaner vehicles, but also giving our passengers the additional comfort of quieter vehicles. Our 446 and 555 will be the first routes to use the new Yutong E10s, and they will be branded in the green Flightline livery as part of other service improvements in partnership with Surrey County Council and Heathrow. Our thanks to DfT and Surrey County Council for their support in helping White Bus make the transition to a greener future.”

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The press release also refers to hydrogen buses funded in the prior ZEBRA 2 tranche (as part of the West Sussex-led allocation Surrey is involved in).

Following a successful bid for funding to the Department for Transport, Surrey County Council has been awarded an additional £1.7m for 12 new zero emission buses. This follows a previous allocation in 2024, taking Surrey’s total provision to over £5 million and 31 new buses in total.

Along with the 34 hydrogen buses already operating across the county, and a further 23 coming into service this Summer, this will see 88 zero emission buses operating on Surrey’s roads.

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HullRailMan said:

The air quality argument is marginal at best given the relatively small number of vehicles in question when compared to overall road vehicles in an urban area. Perhaps enhancing the bus network or reducing fares to make the bus more attractive would have a greater impact by encouraging modal switch.

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Buses do much more mileage per day than the average road vehicle, and while HGVs may do a lot of miles most of them are outside urban areas where local emissions aren't such a problem (and there isn't a viable low-emission solution for most HGV duties anyway). So subsidising electric buses is probably a better environmental benefit per £ spent than subsidising electric cars.

Yes, they’re repeatedly returning to the same urban area over many hours in a single day for a sustained period (6-7 days per week for years), usually passing areas of poor air quality, at a stand with the engine running for a chunk of that and then accelerating from numerous stops usually where people live and work.

I don't understand how Falcon and White Buses keep such an incredibly modern fleet, while operating in what is not traditionally considered as good bus territory. If they are replacing 21 of their current fleet (that's 40% of it) then they will be replacing buses that will be as young as 5 years old in Spring 2026.

It would be nice to see a requirement for these UK government funds to come with requirement that a certain level of UK-built vehicles be included in each purchase (ideally 100%, but I accept that’s unlikely to be realistic).

Towers said:

It would be nice to see a requirement for these UK government funds to come with requirement that a certain level of UK-built vehicles be included in each purchase (ideally 100%, but I accept that’s unlikely to be realistic).

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It would be nice to see UK-built vehicles to the same standards of those designed and built in other countries (but I accept that’s unlikely to be realistic).

The website of Salisbury Reds says that the 7 double-deckers they will get with this additional funding will be for Service X4 (Salisbury - Larkhill) unless there is a change of plan.

Dave

Stan Drews said:

It would be nice to see UK-built vehicles to the same standards of those designed and built in other countries (but I accept that’s unlikely to be realistic).

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You might have a point; I travelled on two 24 plate ADL products yesterday (both diesel), one had non-functioning USB charging points and the other had an ‘Air system fault’ warning on the dash. They can’t all be like that, shirley…

Stan Drews said:

It would be nice to see UK-built vehicles to the same standards of those designed and built in other countries (but I accept that’s unlikely to be realistic).

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The Yutongs appear to be very reliable and popular with operators. Reports suggest that their batteries are better too. The massive number of Yutongs manufactured, and delivered all over the world, must give them an enormous advantage in terms of experience to date.
.

I assume that it's because they lease most of their vehicles, Dawson Rentals is one source.

stevieinselby said:

I don't understand how Falcon and White Buses keep such an incredibly modern fleet, while operating in what is not traditionally considered as good bus territory. If they are replacing 21 of their current fleet (that's 40% of it) then they will be replacing buses that will be as young as 5 years old in Spring 2026.

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I assume that it's because they lease most of their vehicles, Dawson Rentals is one source.
The routes the Electrics are planned for (Whitebus) are mostly operated by Volvo B8RLEs, so looks like they will be returned after a short life.

Stan Drews said:

It would be nice to see UK-built vehicles to the same standards of those designed and built in other countries (but I accept that’s unlikely to be realistic).

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There may yet be British vehicles in the order: First WoE have had Enviro100EV AD24 ADL on demonstration as 57001 recently around Bath where I gather it ran on routes 6 and 7: posts I have seen on Facebook while the vehicle was on loan suggest it is a good vehicle so I wonder if First WoE might consider them as EV replacements for the Optare Solos there.

Robertj21a said:

The Yutongs appear to be very reliable and popular with operators. Reports suggest that their batteries are better too. The massive number of Yutongs manufactured, and delivered all over the world, must give them an enormous advantage in terms of experience to date.

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My thoughts also. When I had my driving job I used to get sent to Newport and Cardiff quite a bit which usually gave me the welcome chance to ride something non-diesel for a change and I never had a Yutong E10 or E12 fail on me when travelling. They did have rattles but I gather the new U11DDs coming into First WoE and First South West have magnetic doors which solves that.

As an aside when First SouthWest showed off, for want of a better way of putting it, 30004 (YK25 OHO) in Taunton on 27th March I went and had a look: it was permissible to sit at the controls and I liked the un-minimalist layout thereof when compared to the single-decker Wrightbus electrics.

Dave

Robertj21a said:

The Yutongs appear to be very reliable and popular with operators. Reports suggest that their batteries are better too. The massive number of Yutongs manufactured, and delivered all over the world, must give them an enormous advantage in terms of experience to date.
.

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One of my friends is a manager for a company that has introduced Yutongs into their fleet. The engineers like them - they are well built vehicles. Moreover, the level of comfort for the driver is also much better than other vehicles he's driven (and he's driven ADLs, Wright Volvos, Optares, etc).

My view (limited and as a passenger) is that Yutong single deckers are very well put together - based on the Cardiff, Newport and Go North East ones I've been on. Not experienced a decker yet.

The Wright vehicles (experienced with First in Norwich and Hampshire) are generally ok.

The ADL e400EVs I've experienced in Greater Manchester, West Mids and Warwickshire. The older ones in Manchester were awful in their build quality though the West Mids ones seemed better oddly - better road surfaces or just representative of individual vehicles on a small sample? The new design ones in Manchester and Warwickshire seem to be better built - upped their game?

TheGrandWazoo said:

One of my friends is a manager for a company that has introduced Yutongs into their fleet. The engineers like them - they are well built vehicles. Moreover, the level of comfort for the driver is also much better than other vehicles he's driven (and he's driven ADLs, Wright Volvos, Optares, etc).

My view (limited and as a passenger) is that Yutong single deckers are very well put together - based on the Cardiff, Newport and Go North East ones I've been on. Not experienced a decker yet.

The Wright vehicles (experienced with First in Norwich and Hampshire) are generally ok.

The ADL e400EVs I've experienced in Greater Manchester, West Mids and Warwickshire. The older ones in Manchester were awful in their build quality though the West Mids ones seemed better oddly - better road surfaces or just representative of individual vehicles on a small sample? The new design ones in Manchester and Warwickshire seem to be better built - upped their game?

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The feedback regarding Yutong products does appear to be overwhelmingly positive, which is certainly high praise considering the previous levels of quality where Chinese vehicles were concerned. It is regretful if UK-built products genuinely can’t match that quality simply through a lack of design or manufacturing capability. That being said, it’s important to note the economic angle here, which is that it is generally accepted that western manufacturers are simply unable to compete with Chinese output as the playing field is not even close to being level, the Chinese retaining an ability to supply products at a speed and price point which no western manufacturer could ever realistically match. It will cost the likes of Yutong, BYD etc much, much less to build a high quality vehicle than it will ADL to build even a lower quality one. As we are seeing right now with the Scunthorpe steel situation, there are choices to be made here - does the West want nice things cheap but with the attached dependence on a Chinese supply chain, with whatever global ramifications that may or may not bring in the future, or do we want to be able to make our own things but accept that this comes at a cost. As with steel, you can lose the ability to produce things far quicker than you can ever regain it again.

It will be a sad day, and much to Britain’s detriment, if we come to the point where the likes of ADL reach the end of the road because Britain’s own bus industry would rather buy Chinese, but currently that looks increasingly inevitable. There is already a question mark over British made coaches with Plaxton hanging in the balance, and simultaneously there are sizeable quantities of Yutong coaches being shipped into the UK. We retain little of anything of our own these days, British bus operators buying British buses was one of the few examples of homegrown industry doing well. It will, I suggest, be much missed, even if perhaps not at first by some of those who used to buy the products!

The Stagecoach Group press release was altered post-publication.

This quote from the original issue (archive link, my strikethrough):

• Stagecoach East Midlands has secured additional £6.1m in ZEBRA 2 funding to expand its electric vehicle fleet in Mansfield and Hull

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was replaced with this quote from the current issue:

• Stagecoach has been awarded a potential £7.9m for its existing schemes
• 40% of this additional £7.9m funding would potentially be invested in Hull and Mansfield to expand its electric vehicle fleet

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By my estimate that 40% share for their East Midlands operations would only cover the 36 (extra) buses for Hull; there's no tally for Mansfield and Nottinghamshire CC haven't said where their ZEBRA 2 boost will go. Meanwhile, the Devon CC ZEBRA 2 boost is actually for Stagecoach South West in Exeter.

Stagecoach South West is pleased to announce that thanks to a successful joint investment of £4.4 million from the transport provider and the Department for Transport (DFT) an additional ten double decker electric buses have been secured for Exeter, bringing the total electric fleet being rolled out across Devon to 51.

This latest investment is in addition to the initial Zero Emission Bus Regional Areas (ZEBRA2) funding that Devon County Council secured in March 2024 from the DFT which saw Stagecoach South West investing £15 million into new vehicles and infrastructure.

The first of the electric buses will be arriving in Exeter this summer, followed by North Devon. The full fleet will be rolled out across the South West by early 2026.

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This directly contradicts the inferred Plymouth Citybus allocation. The Go-Ahead Group press release was reissued on their site today and still refers to Plymouth but there's still no confirmed allocation for that operator.

One wonders if the local authority tallies from last week are already due a revision...

Some clarification of the ZEBRA 2 top-ups, as per routeone...

Go-Ahead has clarified the position on additional vehicles for Plymouth Citybus. A further nine battery-electrics will be procured via a bid consortium made up of Plymouth City Council, Cornwall Council, and the operator. 50 double-deckers are already in the process of delivery from the original ZEBRA 2 allocation.

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It seems Plymouth/Cornwall (who also helped secure the original Citybus 50) were missing from the overarching announcement. The overall GA top-up is 44 (one less than stated) unless another OpCo is due an extra bus.

Stagecoach East Midlands is also the beneficiary of the Nottinghamshire County Council additional ZEBRA 2 funding of £2,680,057. That will see 42 buses – 33 double-deckers and nine single-deckers – go to its Mansfield depot beyond the 23 that are the fruits of the original bid.

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Still no press release from NCC, but a recent decision report (dated 21 March 2025; see paragraphs 57/58 on page 12) confirms they requested extra funding for the above.

In the next 18 months, Burton will have 15 Electric vehicles.

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This is from another Simon Dunn post on WM Bus Photos; tally combines the 6 original and all 9 top-up buses for Diamond Bus East Midlands.

routeone also note that Falcon Buses are in discussions with Surrey over possibly funding an extra pair of E200EVs.