Electric buses are now serving East Midlands Airport following a £3.5 million investment, helping to improve air quality along the route and around the site.
The move by Diamond Bus East Midlands comes as the airport celebrates its diamond anniversary year and follows a recent announcement that East Midlands Airport’s entire fleet of ground vehicles is now running on biodiesel, reducing emissions by up to 90%. These improvements complement the newly launched five-year Sustainability Strategy, Creating a Sustainable Future for All, of the airport’s parent company, Manchester Airports Group.
The 9 Airway service is operated by Diamond Bus in partnership with Staffordshire County Council, Derbyshire County Council, East Midlands Airport and Segro’s East Midlands Gateway logistics park. It runs between Burton upon Trent and East Midlands Airport and Gateway via Swadlincote and Ashby-de-la-Zouch. The service operates seven days a week, with hourly services to the airport and Gateway sites.
The first three of six brand-new electric buses have now been launched on the route, funded through the Government’s Zero Emission Bus Regional Areas (ZEBRA) 2 scheme – a £129 million Government fund to introduce zero-emission buses across the UK. The new buses, which cost £425,000 each, have been funded in partnership with Staffordshire County Council and the Department for Transport.
In addition to the Government funding, Rotala Ltd, the parent company of Diamond Bus East Midlands, is investing over £1 million in depot upgrades to support the operation and maintenance of the new EV buses – bringing a total investment of over £3.5 million to develop a cleaner and greener 9 Airway service.
These new buses join a growing fleet of electric vehicles at the airport, including two new electric ‘ambulifts’, which transport passengers with reduced mobility to aircraft. Other recent moves include installing electric vehicle (EV) charging points for vehicles operating on the airfield and switching the airport’s fleet of 62 ground vehicles to biodiesel produced from waste vegetable oils and fats, which undergo a hydrogen treatment to be turned into renewable fuel. The airport has established a Sustainable Transport Fund using parking revenue to improve public transport options for accessing the site, including funds to support the 9 Airway service.
The airport’s neighbouring cities of Nottingham, Derby and Leicester are served by the trentbarton and Kinchbus Skylink services, which carried nearly half a million passengers to and from the airport last year, with their my15 service and Diamond Bus’s 9 Airway services connecting Ilkeston and Burton with the airport.
Diamond Bus has been working in partnership with Derbyshire County Council, East Midlands Airport and East Midlands Gateway to ensure the service provides a timetable that suits shift workers at the various businesses located on these sites, with buses running from early morning to late evening every day.
East Midlands Airport has been carbon neutral since 2012 and was the UK’s first airport to be certified carbon neutral by the Airport Carbon Accreditation scheme. The airport has implemented a range of decarbonisation measures at the site, including investing in energy efficiency measures, installing commercial-grade wind turbines and using 100% electricity from renewable sources.
East Midlands Airport’s Managing Director, Steve Griffiths, said: “We’re delighted that Diamond Bus East Midlands have started operating electric buses on their route serving the airport. It comes as our new five-year Sustainability Strategy is launched, pledging that we will reach net zero operations by 2038.
“We remain committed to working with partners to reduce our impact and provide people with great alternative options to the car for getting to and from the airport.”
Operations Manager for Diamond Bus East Midlands, Richard Grosvenor, said: “Diamond Bus and our parent company, Rotala Limited, are committed to playing our part in reducing emissions by increasing the use of electric vehicles across our fleet.
“Personally, I am thrilled and proud that, with the support of this ZEBRA funding, we have been able to bring these great benefits to our East Midlands Airport service. I hope that our 9 Airway service passengers will enjoy travelling on these brand-new, modern, air-conditioned buses.”
