Sssh! Hybrid double deckers

London gets first double decker diesel-electric hybrid bus

The roaring and belching days of London’s double decker buses are fast being consigned to folk memory - but the march of the clean green hybrids need not mean an end to top-deck travel.

Mayor Ken Livingstone recently unveiled the first hybrid double-decker bus in the world. Now in service on the 141 bus route from Wood Green to London Bridge, it uses a combination of diesel and electric power which should cut carbon emissions by up to 40% per bus and reduce noise levels too.

Designed by WrightBus, its wheels are driven by an electric motor powered by a battery pack. This in turn is kept charged up by the combination of a small diesel engine, and the recovery of energy generated whenever the bus brakes. Its range is equivalent to that of a conventional diesel bus. 

Six single-deck hybrid buses went into circulation in 2005, but there is just one lone double decker - on a trial run. It cost £285,000, so Transport for London hopes to persuade manufacturers, including Volvo, to find ways to bring the cost down. “Creating a low-carbon bus fleet,” said Livingstone, “is an important part of our work to make London one of the world’s most sustainable cities.” Ralph Lovesy of the Campaign for Battery Electric Vehicles welcomed the initiative, but encouraged the mayor to go even further with fully electric ‘trolley buses’ that use overhead power lines to charge the battery. - Fiona Campbell

12 January 2007

Fiona Campbell