Forming an all-electric bus city in Oxford

Under an innovative scheme in Oxford, Go-Ahead agreed to invest in 104 electric vehicles if the local authority implements traffic measures to speed up buses by 10% - ultimately making public transport more attractive than cars and encouraging modal shift from car to bus.

The project was first instigated through funding from the Government’s Zero-Emission Bus Regional Areas scheme (ZEBRA) which gives money to local authorities to then work with bus operators to introduce zero-emission buses.

In the case of this submission – Go-Ahead worked with Oxfordshire County Council to create one of the UK’s largest all-electric bus cities and take the lead in encouraging urban mobility.

The project has also seen the full electrification of Oxford Bus Company’s Cowley Depot where 104 bus charging points have been installed, each start-of-the-art charging hub will deliver 150kw of power, providing enough electricity for every bus to drive over 170 miles per day.

Collectively this groundbreaking infrastructure project has already started to improve air-quality, reduce noise pollution, and improve the performance of services with the introduction of traffic filters across the city to reduce journey times.