Dozens of zero-emission electric buses ordered by the National Transport Authority (NTA) 18 months ago have yet to be put into service, partly because of delays in installing charging infrastructure at two bus depots in Dublin, reports RTE.
The NTA ordered 120 electric buses in June 2022 as part of its plan to deliver 800 zero-emission buses to Dublin Bus and Bus Éireann within five years, Of the 120 buses ordered, 100 are for Dublin Buses and 20 are for Bus Éireann.
In a speech in June 2022, launching a key part of the plan to decarbonise the country’s public transport fleet, Transport Secretary Eamon Ryan said: “This is the future, electrifying everything in transport, cutting out the carbon,” reports RTE.
While the first electric double-decker buses to be added to the national fleet are not yet in service, the NTA told Prime Time that ten electric buses ordered in June 2022 are currently being used in Dublin for testing and training purposes.
According to Fleet Transport’s Sean Murtagh, the buses ordered in 2022 were delivered “without charging infrastructure”.
“The difficulty is that it looks like they’ve run into planning problems with the infrastructure for the charging mechanism. But it does seem a bit ridiculous that we have 120 buses sitting there that can’t be used at the moment,” Mr Murtagh said, reports RTE.
The National Bus and Rail Union (NBRU) has stated that bus garages should be exempt from such planning restrictions.
“From a common-sense approach, if it is a climate emergency, one would have assumed that when they ordered the electric vehicles they would have exempted the bus garages from planning permission to get these vehicles on the road as quick as possible,” said the NBRU’s Assistant General Secretary Tom O’Connor, reports RTE.
Tell us your thoughts in the Facebook post and share this with your friends.