"There are no Jersey-compatible zero-emission buses"

Friday 06 August 2021

There are no electric or zero-emission buses currently on the market that would suit Jersey's roads, according to the Government.

The statement followed questions about why the new 'Town Hopper' service would not have any electric vehicles as part of its fleet, given the Government's stated aim to decarbonise public transport as part of a push towards carbon neutrality by 2030.

A spokesperson for the Infrastructure Department told Express: "There are no Jersey-compatible zero-emission buses or large commercial vehicles on the market yet which are suited for our roads.

"We will continue to monitor global market trends and look out for any opportunities in the future to source an electric vehicle."

In August 2019, a double decker electric bus was trialled on the island for six weeks, though after repeated breakdowns, the bus was deemed unsuitable for Jersey's roads.

A follow-up trial with a single decker bus was scheduled for February 2020, but had to be delayed due to supply issues.

In June of this year, Infrastructure Minister Deputy Kevin Lewis said that costs were a key reason as to why the island had not gone electric with its bus fleet yet, telling the Assembly: "I am all for electrification wherever possible. But, as I say, the charging infrastructure would be quite extensive to recharge that amount of buses."

He added that: "LibertyBus owns and operates their own buses, so there would be some considerable cost in going electric. But that is a conversation that we are having."

Pictured: The new Town Hopper buses can have engines capable of running on HVO biodiesel, though there was no guarantee this biodiesel would be used for them.

It's now looking likely that the new 'Hopper' service - whose trial is set to cost £350,000 next year - will use three non-electric Optare buses powered by biofuel. While this would incur an extra expense, it would also be significantly cleaner than using conventional fuel.

A Ministerial report explained: "...it is understood that new-build Optare vehicles can be equipped with engines capable of running on HVO biodiesel.

"Compared to conventional diesel fuel, this would impose an extra operational cost of approximately £20,000 per annum on the town bus service. It is understood that the use of HVO biodiesel would be approximately 75% cleaner in terms of CO2 emissions than normal diesel fuel."