The Victorian Government is powering ahead on its promise of deploying 36 zero and low emission buses across Melbourne by 2025, with the new buses to have their home in the western suburbs.
A depot in Sunshine West will house five electric vehicles in the coming months and will be upgraded to store and charge 24 electric buses. A depot in Heatherton will also be upgraded to house and charge 12 electric buses.
Victoria’s first two electric bus depots will include undercover parking bays and major electrical infrastructure to increase power capacity to charge buses.
Solar panels will be installed to further reduce the carbon footprint of the depots. When complete, more than 30 per cent of the franchise bus fleets at the two depots will be zero emissions buses.
The electric buses will be deployed across 11 routes operated from Sunshine West. The buses will also run on select routes from Heatherton.
Victorians will have the chance to vote on what the new electric buses will look like. The poll, which can be accessed on the PTV website, has three designs to choose from and is open until midnight, Friday 18 March.
In addition, 49 hybrid buses will enter service across Melbourne over the next eighteen months, with technology installed to automatically run on the electric power only in dining precincts to reduce fuel emissions and noise.
The vehicles will be delivered as part of a partnership with Kinetic Melbourne, the largest mass transit bus operator in Australia and New Zealand.
Victorian Minister for Energy, Environment and Climate Change Lily D’Ambrosio said the buses would deliver a greener transport option for the region.
“The new zero emission buses introduced by Kinetic will cover a third of Melbourne’s bus network – that’s a win for locals and a win the environment as we head towards our target of halving emissions by 2030,” D’Ambrosio said.
For more information on the rollout, click here.
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