Clean Air Manchester

We believe that public transport, particularly the bus, is central to the air quality solution.  Buses play a vital role in avoiding or reducing journeys and providing more sustainable transport options.

We’ve been investing in greener transport for years!

For a number of years now we have been investing in driver training and on bus telematics technology, which helps reduce idling and gives information to our drivers on the quality of their driving to help deliver safer and more comfortable journeys for our customers and more fuel efficient services.
We’ve also invested significantly in our fleet. Currently 144 of our buses are hybrid electric buses and 145 are Euro 6 standard we also have 1 Euro 6 Hybrid, making ours the greenest bus fleet outside of London. A Euro 6 bus produces fewer emissions overall than a Euro 6 car and can carry 20 times more people.

Electric buses – coming soon

Just recently, we announced plans to deliver Europe's largest single investment in electric buses for Greater Manchester.

Clean Air Zone Proposal

We agree that action is needed to tackle the dirtiest vehicles travelling in and out of the city centre, but the Clean Air Zone charges do not tackle the biggest source of pollution in Greater Manchester – cars. Other major cities, such as Birmingham, have introduced clean air zones but have not exempted private car drivers. Instead of targeting buses, action would be better focused on addressing our congestion crisis. Damaging emissions are four times as bad in nose-to-tail traffic than they would be if traffic is able to flow.

Figures from the Department for Transport show that there were more than 1.14million cars licensed in Greater Manchester at the end of 2017, some 17,600 more than in 2016 and 75,400 more than in 2012. More than a third of these are diesel cars and – along with vans, which will be exempt from the Clean Air Zone tax until 2023 – they are responsible for 71% of Nox pollution, yet buses and coaches make up just 6% of the figure.

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* A bus with just 7 passengers is more fuel efficient than 7 40mpg single occupancy cars