When is a low carbon bus a low carbon bus?

In December 2008 the British government announced changes to the Bus Service Operator’s Grant (BSOG), which subsidises UK public transport. The changes are intended to offer public transport operators greater incentives to introduce low carbon, fuel efficient buses.

Jonathan Murray, deputy director of Low Carbon Vehicle Partnership (LowCVP), explains what the BSOG changes mean for public transport in the UK, and the importance of defining exactly what constitutes ‘low carbon’ to the future of greener vehicles.

Rebate
The BSOG is essentially a fuel duty rebate for bus operators, which currently stands at around eighty per cent of the tax paid on diesel. The system has been in place for many years, and its diesel bias has so far discouraged public transport operators from switching to low carbon alternatives.

“The current BSOG was developed when fuel was readily available and climate change wasn’t a burning issue,” says Jonathan. “As it stands, the more fuel transport operators use, the more money they get back. But new technologies use less fuel, meaning less money, and to compound this, the new technology is more expensive. So bus companies are reluctant to make the switch. It’s the single most important barrier to the introduction of more fuel efficient, low carbon vehicles to the bus market.”

Revisions
LowCVP has spent several years campaigning for reforms to the BSOG to address this barrier. The recent announcement of plans to amend the system was a welcome step forward in the race to meet the UK’s climate change targets.

The revisions will provide an incentive to switch to low carbon vehicles through a number of measures, but primarily by substituting a flat pence-per-kilometre subsidy for the fuel duty rebate, meaning qualifying low carbon buses receive more money for travelling further.

Universal definition
What qualifies as a low carbon vehicle, says Jonathan, is yet to be decided. It is one of LowCVP’s greatest concerns that a universal definition of ‘low carbon’ or ‘environmentally friendly’ bus is rapidly agreed on, to allow manufacturers to begin producing vehicles that meet an accepted standard.

“Because there’s lots of interest in encouraging more environmentally friendly buses, there’s a danger we’ll end up with a number of competing specifications on what constitutes a low-carbon vehicle,” explains Jonathan. “This is fine when vehicles are at the prototype stage, but when you look ahead to mass production, manufacturers and technology developers need a clear goal to aim for.”

Starting point
LowCVP has already developed a performance-based low carbon bus specification which takes into account CO2 and noxious gas emissions, fuel consumption and ambient noise. This has been developed in conjunction with Transport for London, which is currently running a large scale demonstration of low carbon buses.

The specification has been accepted as the starting point for European project Compro, a consortium of cities from France, Germany, Italy and Sweden, whose purpose is to develop a standard specification for low carbon public transport vehicles, with the aim of procuring qualifying vehicles in 2010.

Commitment
Looking ahead, LowCVP is keen to see more cities commit to operating greener bus fleets. It hopes this is another area in which low carbon standardisation can help.

“Transport for London may make a firm decision, for instance, that if hybrid vehicles deliver, then all buses purchased for London will be hybrid,” says Jonathan. “But that only equates to around five hundred buses a year. We need that level of commitment from other cities. We feel that with our specification, there could be a UK market of at least double the size of London. And through our work with the Compro project, we’re hoping to see a number of other EU cities take advantage of these vehicles as well.”