Yahoo News More than £15m was spent on cleaning up buses. Was it all for nothing?
Millions of pounds spent on making old buses more eco-friendly has not reduced harmful emissions enough, the government has said.
More than £15m was spent on upgrading 1,153 buses in Greater Manchester - around half of the total fleet. But funding for the national retrofit scheme was paused last year after reports that the technology used to reduce emissions was not as effective as first thought.
The government has now scrapped the scheme after a review found the selective catalytic reduction (SCR) technology, only reduced emissions of nitrogen oxides (NOX) by 11 per cent on average. And in some cases, retrofitting buses resulted in even higher emissions.
It comes as transport bosses in Greater Manchester issue a major update on the Clean Air Zone. The controversial scheme, which would have seen some vehicles with high emissions - including buses - charged a daily fee to use local roads, is still under review.
Local leaders now want to scrap all charges, arguing that they can bring emissions down faster by buying new buses, reducing traffic around the city centre and offering grants to upgrade vehicles such as taxis. However, in an update issued on Wednesday (September 18), transport bosses revealed that nitrogen dioxide (NO2) will remain above legal limits in Greater Manchester for another two years.
The updated Clean Air Plan estimates that the city-region will comply with a government order to meet its legal obligations over air quality by 2026. But this is one year later than transport bosses had predicted when they revealed their plans last year in December.
Delays in upgrading bus depots so new electric buses can be charged are said to be the main reason for the compliance date being pushed back. But a new report reveals that an 'error' in the modelling meant that issues with retrofitted buses were not factored in.
The report, published this week, said: "A formula in the modelling tool had not been updated to reflect the government's changed guidance on the performance of its bus retrofit programme. This means that the model outputs underestimated the amount of primary nitrogen dioxide and therefore the predicted NO2 concentrations that we reported in the December 2023 submission."
The modelling has now been corrected to reflect the fact that retrofitting buses has not had the desired effect. It follows a government report, published last week, which concluded that the 'real-world performance' of SCR technology is 'highly variable'.
The research, overseen by the Department for Transport and Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs found that retrofitting buses reduced NOX emissions by up to 90 per cent in some cases, but had a 'minimal effect' in others. On average, there was an 11 per cent reduction in NOX emissions from retrofitted buses, which is 'significantly lower' than the anticipated 80 per cent.
Revealing the findings of the report last week, transport secretary Louise Haigh said: "The research shows that a number of contributing factors can lead to poor performance, including incorrect functioning of retrofit systems, the condition of bus engines and low catalyst operating temperatures. Based on these findings, I am announcing today a permanent end to further government funding for retrofit and the closure of the clean vehicle retrofit accreditation scheme to further accreditations.
"Moving forward, we will work with bus operators and retrofit suppliers to encourage a step change in monitoring and maintenance of retrofit systems to get the best possible performance from the retrofitted buses currently in service. This will include ensuring that buses are providing live data showing retrofit performance so that operators and depots can prioritise and target essential maintenance on the poorest performing buses."
She added: "Air pollution is the biggest environmental threat to human health, and this government recognises the need to take preventative public health measures to tackle the biggest killers and support people to live longer healthier lives. We will continue to work closely with the relevant local authorities to identify alternative measures to deliver compliance with legal NO2 limits in the shortest possible time."
Commenting on the Bus Retrofit Performance Report last week, Keith McNally, who is the Operations Director at the Confederation of Passenger Transport (CPT), said: “CPT remains committed to working closely with all stakeholders, including government bodies and operators, to ensure that the investments made in retrofitting technology yield the best possible results.
“Both the government and operators have invested in this technology in good faith, and CPT will continue to advocate for solutions that maximise the environmental benefits while ensuring operators can achieve optimal performance from retrofitted buses.”
In a statement announcing the updated plans which will be submitted to the government, Bury council leader Eamonn O’Brien, who is responsible for the Clean Air brief in Greater Manchester, said: “Poor air quality affects us all and particularly the most vulnerable among us – the young, old and those with health conditions. We have a longstanding commitment to cleaning up our air and Greater Manchester has carried out a tremendous amount of work to get us to a place where we are seeing air quality improvements.
“The latest air quality monitoring data shows a really encouraging trend and indicates that the steps we’ve already taken to invest in cleaner buses through the Bee Network are making real inroads to cleaning up the air we all breathe. And we’ve done this without the hardship to residents and businesses that a charging Clean Air Zone could cause.
“Given some of the changes that have occurred in the last nine months, there was a need to adapt and update our proposals for an investment-led, non-charging GM Clean Air Plan. We’re now in a position where that work has been done and, subject to approvals, we can submit our updated plan to the new government as soon as possible and await their decision.”
A report will go to the GM Air Quality Administration Committee when it meets on October 1, with a recommendation to approve the submission of the updated plan to government. It will be for government to make a final decision on the details of the Clean Air Plan.
