Press Releases
29 items found, showing page 2 of 3

First Bus welcomes new generation of engineering apprentices with fun-filled week at Reaseheath College
- First Bus welcomes 52 new apprentices across England, Scotland and Wales.
- English-based apprentices to be placed at purpose-built engineering facility at Reaseheath College.
- Apprentices enjoyed a fun-filled induction week of team-building activities and key skills tests.
- Reaseheath Facility that opened in 2021 offers a unique work experience-style environment to help apprentices adopt a workplace mindset while they learn.

First Bus welcomes new Decarbonisation Programme Director
- First Bus appoints new Decarbonisation Programme Director
- Faizan Ahmad joins from Amazon and brings wealth of experience in decarbonisation delivery

First Bus begin works to transform Norwich Roundtree Way to all-electric fleet depot
- Works begin to convert Roundtree Way depot in Norwich into all-electric fleet depot.
- The depot will become one of three all-electric fleet depots in the UK, outside of London.
- 70 Brand New Wrightbus vehicles, 11 single deck and 59 double deck buses, to be delivered from Autumn 2023 through to March 2024.
- Over 60 tonnes of tailpipe emissions saved per bus every year.

First Bus purchase new site to create new ‘super bus depot’ in Portsmouth
- First Bus have purchased the old Daily Mail processing centre in Portsmouth.
- The new site will become a purpose built all-electric site fit to host their new electric bus fleet of the future.
- The new depot will take up to 2-3 years to build and represents a significant investment and future commitment to bus services in Portsmouth.
- First Bus will be launching 62 brand-new all-electric buses from April 2024 from its existing Hoeford depot site.

‘Bus depot of the future’ launches in Leicester as one of the UK’s first fully electric depots outside of London
- First Bus’ Leicester depot will join York and Norwich to become one of the UK’s first three fully electrified bus depots outside of London
- The ‘bus depot of the future’ sets a precedent for UK-wide road transport decarbonisation
- First Bus Leicester will have 86 new electric buses expected on public roads by March 2024
- This brings the total investment across all ZEBRA projects that First Bus is delivering to £92m, alongside ZEBRA funding of £66m.

UK’s first autonomous zero-emission bus service begins in Oxfordshire
- Operating at Milton Park business, science and technology park in Oxfordshire
- Electric 15-seater autonomous bus accessible to wheelchairs and pushchairs
- Ground-breaking technology in vehicle movement and world-first travel planning

York and Norwich set to become first all-electric bus depots outside of London after boosted ZEBRA funding
- York and Norwich set to become the UK’s first bus depots outside of London to run fully electric fleets
- Four First Bus depots benefit from boosted joint investment in electric fleet
- First Bus to reach a total of over 600 zero emission buses across the UK by March 2024

First Bus and partners welcome Roads Minister to launch UK's first all-electric autonomous bus service at Milton Park
- UK’s first zero emission autonomous bus service to operate at Milton Park business, science and technology park in Oxfordshire
- Project to launch two zero emission single-decker autonomous buses which are fully accessible to wheelchair users and prams
- Ground-breaking technology in vehicle movement and travel planning
- The buses will have a safety driver on board at all times during operation and have completed its first test passenger journeys over the past two weeks

Almost half of UK adults set to switch to bus as cost-of-living crisis begins to bite
- 41% of UK adults are planning to use the bus more frequently in a bid to save money, as households feel the pinch of the cost-of-living crisis.
- London has seen the most increased bus use (60%) followed by Glasgow (47%), Leeds (45%) and Liverpool (43%).

First Bus partners with Equipmake to upgrade York EV Fleet
- First Bus have awarded a contract to fully convert 12 Optare Versa buses from existing EV Generation one system to Equipmake’s Zero Emission Drivetrain (ZED)
- Conversion work underway on the first Versa bus at Equipmake’s headquarters in Snetterton, Norfolk
- The first of the 12 buses is expected to be back in operation on the roads of York in November
- Equipmake’s patented HVAC system will have a guaranteed range of 150 miles in all UK weather conditions for the upgraded York fleet