Scotland BEAR 4 Euro 6 Upgrade Awards

[Surreyman]

The Scottish Government recently announced £6.2m of funding awards for upgrading 379 vehicles.

The successful bidders are: -

The retrofitted buses and coaches will be used on routes within one of Scotland’s cities identified in the Scottish Government’s Programme for Government 2017 LEZ commitment (Aberdeen, Dundee, Edinburgh and Glasgow) and/or one of Scotland’s Air Quality Management Areas.
BEAR Phase 4 grants awarded in 2021/22:

Operator	Buses / Coaches	Total Grant awarded
First Aberdeen	129	£2,144,012.25
Stagecoach East	74	£1,108,479
First Glasgow	49	£814,392.25
Stagecoach West	31	£538,488.50
First Scotland East	28	£473,235.45
Stagecoach Bluebird	20	£283,670
Stagecoach Highlands	16	£232,015.55
Milligans Coach Travel	6	£114,000
E & M Horsburgh Ltd	4	£76,000
Temporal Travel	3	£57,000
Prentice Westwood Coaches	3	£57,000
LA Travel Edinburgh	3	£57,000
AC Luxury Coaches	3	£57,000
Prentice Coaches	2	£35,707
AAA Coaches	2	£38,000
Moffat & Williamson	2	£38,000
Rockstar Party Bus	1	£19,000
Hairy Haggis Tours Ltd	1	£19,000
MacPhails Coaches	1	£19,000
Wilsons of Rhu Ltd	1	£19,000
Total	379	£6,200,000

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 22 Dec 2021 ==

Sorry should above -have put a link in to the Scottish Bear post: -

Scottish Bus Emission Abatement Retrofit Fund | Transport Scotland

www.transport.gov.scot

 

[TheGrandWazoo]

I'm assuming that's the entire First Aberdeen fleet including coaches being done??

Odd to see the Rockstar Party Bus and Hairy Haggis Tours also getting funding!

 

[Surreyman]

I'm assuming that's the entire First Aberdeen fleet including coaches being done??

Odd to see the Rockstar Party Bus and Hairy Haggis Tours also getting funding!

Aberdeens interesting because they have a lot of elderly vehicles, can't see them upgrading many B7RLE when they are all over 12 years old, the Enviro 500s - '09 reg?
My guess is that they will transfer un-modified E300/Streetlites from Scotland East & Glasgow, easy to do now that frequencies are reduced and some vehicles are parked up.
I seem to recall that the wording in the original document was something along the lines of 'Vehicles modified would need have a minimum of 5 years service in Scotland' or words to that effect.
I believe another 10 Hydrogen Streetdecks are due and of course it is possible that a bid has gone in for more 'zero-emission' buses?

 

[Volvodart]

The 07 and 57 plates at Aberdeen do not meet the terms of the grant as they are over 13 years old, so I am not sure how they get to 129. The Citaros and E500s are starting to be modified. There are 15 non Euro 6 coaches and 111 non Euro 6 buses currently plus 3 out of date trainers which also don't qualify as they are Euro 3.

 

[scosutsut]

Maybe bordering on political, but I think it's obscene that companies of the scale of First and Stagecoach can claim this. They are essentially being rewarded for not investing in their fleets and they'll have been holding back / moving stock to allow them to milk this system.

 

[Scotrail88]

I find that comment strange as I bet some of the ‘smaller’ companies have a better profit per bus than some of the big operators areas.
Just because they run more means they bid for more.

 

[TheGrandWazoo]

Maybe bordering on political, but I think it's obscene that companies of the scale of First and Stagecoach can claim this. They are essentially being rewarded for not investing in their fleets and they'll have been holding back / moving stock to allow them to milk this system.

Given that bus companies typically have vehicle replacement programmes where fleets have a life of 15 or so years, and CAZs weren't being talked about (at least seriously) in those days, then they couldn't have managed their fleet replacement to reflect these zones introduction. Even then, it's not the full cost of conversion.

One area where Scotland differs is that all polluting vehicles are to be so dealt with (with some very specific exemptions), rather than a number of English examples where private cars are exempt so you can drive your 2002 Corsa through Bath, no questions asked, but a Euro V bus has to pay!

The 07 and 57 plates at Aberdeen do not meet the terms of the grant as they are over 13 years old, so I am not sure how they get to 129. The Citaros and E500s are starting to be modified. There are 15 non Euro 6 coaches and 111 non Euro 6 buses currently plus 3 out of date trainers which also don't qualify as they are Euro 3.

I was more surprised at the coaches being included in the calcs.

I suspect that e300s will be liberated from Glasgow somehow.

 

[Surreyman]

Maybe bordering on political, but I think it's obscene that companies of the scale of First and Stagecoach can claim this. They are essentially being rewarded for not investing in their fleets and they'll have been holding back / moving stock to allow them to milk this system.

Most of the the vehicles which get upgraded are usually the newest non-Euro 6 examples, so typically say built between 2010-2014.
if they were ordering new vehicles (Which during Covid I accept they are not) they would be replacing vehicles built between 2004-2007.
Ok historically, First are/were guilty of having a high number of older vehicles still in service but they seem to be making amends.
Stagecoach have a good past record on vehicle replacement.
In the current climate, Companies would be irresponsible to be planning any Cap-ex spending without good cause.
I think (my own personal opinion here) that we could well see long term service reductions and corresponding fleet reductions across many companies and that the overall Uk bus fleet will shrink, I hope I am wrong.

 

[TheGrandWazoo]

In the current climate, Companies would be irresponsible to be planning any Cap-ex spending without good cause.
I think (my own personal opinion here) that we could well see long term service reductions and corresponding fleet reductions across many companies and that the overall Uk bus fleet will shrink, I hope I am wrong.

I hope you're wrong but suspect that you may well be right.

 

[PG]

My first thought on reading the thread title was isn't BEAR one of the trunk roads maintenance firms and what has this got to do with buses & coaches?

 

[cnjb8]

Maybe bordering on political, but I think it's obscene that companies of the scale of First and Stagecoach can claim this. They are essentially being rewarded for not investing in their fleets and they'll have been holding back / moving stock to allow them to milk this system.

Stagecoach are receiving electric buses at Kilmarnock, Perth and Aberdeen. Meanwhile First is receiving a large amount of electric buses for its Glasgow operations. They are investing in their services, and it’s not a problem if they want to make their remaining fleet as clean as possible IMO