Passengers riding buses in 2020 in Birmingham, Solihull and Coventry have been playing a huge part in fighting climate change.

This summer, National Express replaced all the buses on its number 6 route – between Birmingham and Solihull – and the 9 in Coventry with full-electric vehicles. So far, this has prevented over 700 tonnes of carbon dioxide going out into the atmosphere.

One tonne of carbon dioxide would make an enormous bubble over twice the height of a 4.2m double decker bus.

One tonne of carbon dioxide is 556.2m³, a sphere of 10.2 metres in diameter.

National Express West Midlands promised in February 2020 that it would never buy another diesel bus and the entire fleet would be zero-emission by 2030. The existing 1,600 buses already make up the biggest low-carbon fleet outside London.

National Express West Midlands, Transport for West Midlands and Coventry City Council have been working together since 2016 on their electric dreams.

Through the West Midlands Bus Alliance they applied for and won over £5m from the government’s Ultra-Low Emission Bus Scheme.

National Express West Midlands is also looking forward to running Birmingham City Council’s 20 hydrogen buses when they arrive in 2021.

Chris Gibbens, Commercial Director at National Express’ bus division, says: ““We’d like to thank all our customers on the Birmingham-Solihull 6 and the Coventry 9 service. They may not know it, but by getting the bus every day, they’ve made a massive difference to our region’s fight against climate change.

“National Express’ 29 fully electric buses have already clocked up over 429,000 miles since they went out in service in July and August. The carbon emissions from the buses that used to run on those routes would have been over 1kg per km. But these beautiful British-built buses are powered by renewable energy – so they’re totally zero-emission.

“And don’t forget that even a five-mile journey on a normal diesel bus means you emit half the carbon as you would if you went by car. So getting the bus is the simplest and cheapest thing you can do to fight climate change.”

The emissions data was calculated using the Low Carbon Vehicle Partnership’s tool: http://www.lowcvp.org.uk/assets/other/LEB%20Certificate%20-%20ml02015872_73_74.pdf