Hundreds of Leeds buses to get a multi-million pound facelift with 'clean technology'

A report, set to go before a West Yorkshire Combined Authority (WYCA) committee, claims that work to retro-fit 300 vehicles with “clean bus technology” is more than half way finished, and is set to be complete by March 2020.

WYCA says it has received roughly £5m from various local and national government sources to install “clean bus technology” on fleets of buses mainly coming in and out of Leeds.

The report states: “In 2018 West Yorkshire Combined Authority was awarded £4.21m of funding by Defra to retrofit buses with clean bus technology. This was match funded by a further £850,000 from Leeds Public Transport Improvement Programme to retrofit 300 vehicles, primarily for vehicles that are used on routes entering the Leeds district.

“To date 184 vehicles have had retrofits completed. The remaining work is expected to be completed by March 2020.”

This is expected to make the buses compliant for the forthcoming Leeds clean air charging zone, which is not set to be in place until at least summer 2020.

The report added that further work would take place on buses in the region to allow for similar provisions in and around Bradford.

It stated: “In March 2019 West Yorkshire Combined Authority was successful in obtaining a further £2.9m of retrofit funding. This enables the Combined Authority to support the conversion of buses to benefit the planned Clean Air Zone in Bradford.”