AN ‘innovative’ proposal for an electric bus service between Frome and Westbury could help revolutionise the country’s bus service and support the fight against climate change.
Plans are currently under way to create a proposal to replace the current Frome to Westbury service – which operates five times a day using two diesel buses – with an hourly service using four electric buses, creating a ‘zero carbon emissions’ bus corridor between the two towns.
And it is hoped that if successful, the electric bus corridor could provide a model that could be quickly expanded across Somerset and Wiltshire; and then England.
“If the government’s eventual aim – which is what they say in ‘Bus Back Better’ [the government’s vision to transform and improve bus services in England] – is for all bus services to be ‘zero emission’ – at some point they have to test that on a route like Westbury/Frome,” said Lee Fletcher from bus user group Option 24/7, at this month’s Frome Town Council ‘town matters’ meeting. “And this will the ideal opportunity for them to do this.”
The estimated cost of the proposal is £1.5million, which could be funded by the Department for Transport’s ‘zero emissions bus regional area scheme’.
Involved in the plans are a number of local groups and councils, including Frome Town Council , Westbury Town Council, Option 24/7, and the Somerset Bus Partnership – who will collectively pitch the idea of the Frome/Westbury electric bus corridor to Wiltshire Council – who subsidise the current Frome/ Westbury service – in a bid to include it as part of their Bus Service Improvement Plan that will be submitted to the government.
According to Option 24/7, the electric bus service could help save Wiltshire Council money, who currently subsidise the route at a cost of £92,000 per year. Option 24/7 say that an electric bus service would need an estimated annual subsidy of £80,000.
“The lower cost of operating electric buses means there would be a saving,” the group says.
