Opinion : Should Wycombe be the first town in the UK to have all-electric buses?

Wouldn’t it be nice if Wycombe had some shiny new buses?

Only the other day my good self was waiting for a bus in the bus station and happened to notice the condition of some of the buses parked in the bays.

It seems a very high proportion of them had rust bubbling up under the paint. Some had dents to the body panels and others were generally in poor condition.

To put it bluntly, a number of the buses appeared clapped out and in need of replacement.

Recently my good self happened to come across an article on a national new site headlined ‘Britain’s first all-electric bus town will be chosen this year in push to make public transport greener‘.

According to the news article local authorities across England have been asked to apply for a £50m fund so their current bus fleet can be replaced with shiny new electric vehicles. Indeed ministers claim that 200 electric buses are able to offset the emissions from 3,700 diesel cars.

Surely High Wycombe should be applying to become the first town in the UK with electric powered buses?

With a mix of terrain including flat roads like London Road and the hills of Downley, Totteridge and Castlefield surely High Wycombe would be a perfect proving ground to see if the current generation of electric buses were capable of performing across a variety of conditions?

It’s no good rolling out electric buses throughout the UK if they couldn’t cope with a route like the 33 in High Wycombe which sees moderate hills in the Castlefield area, steep hills on the climb to Totteridge and flat roads from Dashwood Avenue to Frogmoor.

Having electric buses would help reduce pollution in Wycombe’s Air Quality Management Area too.

Over the years Wycombe has been subject to many experiments such as the Special Parking Area in the town centre and more recently the infernal ‘Masterplan’ that, in my opinion, messed up the road network in the town centre.

Let’s see the powers that be in Wycombe apply to the Government for funding to make Wycombe the first town in the UK to have an all electric bus fleet, which in my view would come as a great benefit to the town and those who use the bus service regularly.

What do you think?

My blogs are published regularly here on the WycombeToday.com website.

You can also follow me on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/ivor.wycombe or on Twitter at https://twitter.com/Ivor_Wycombe.