The Big Lemon will soon be launching electric buses in Bristol and Bath.
The first vehicles arrived at our Bristol depot on Saturday 23 March following trials in Brighton.
The buses are Optare Solo EVs supplied by Switch UK. Originally new to Stagecoach in Inverness, they have undergone a retrofit and refurbishment program at the manufacturer’s, and given a splash of yellow paint in preparation for service with us.
We have been busy preparing our depot in readiness, with the installation of four electric bus chargers in our Bristol depot.
Following the delivery of the buses at our depot we had a staff training event, going through safety and defect checking and reporting procedures as well as familiarisation with the new electric buses and how to give our passengers the best possible experience in the bus.
And today, Monday 25 March, we took one of the buses to the Royal United Hospital as part of the Hospital’s active travel day.
There we met Cllr Sarah Warren, Deputy Leader and Exec Member for Sustainability for Bath & North East Somerset, and Georgia-Rose Gleeson from the Royal United Hospitals Bath NHS Foundation Trust, and showed them around the new bus.
By a wonderful coincidence today also marked the third anniversary of our General Manager Colin Morris’s arrival at The Big Lemon. Speaking at the event, Colin said:
As I reflect on my 3rd Anniversary at The Big Lemon, I am currently at a sustainable travel event at RUH, with an electric bus.
We first brought The Big Lemon into the West of England 18 months ago with a vision of introducing zero-emissions electric bus services. This week sees that vision come a big step closer as we trial our new electric buses on route 515 in Bristol and 20 in Bath.
This has been an exciting and sometimes difficult journey, but one I am proud to have been a part of, and I’d like to thank all our team, the West of England Combined Authority, Bristol City Council and Bath & North East Somerset council for all their help and support to make it happen. Now to finish the job!
