THE UK’S FIRST ‘Bio-Bus’, powered by human and household waste, will go into regular service in Bristol later this month.
The bus, which runs on biomethane gas, will utilise waste from more than 32,000 households along its new 15-mile route and can travel up to 300km on one tank of gas.
Operated by First West of England, the bus will first fill up at a site in Avonmouth, Bristol, where sewage and inedible food waste is turned into biomethane, before carrying on the Service 2 route to Cribbs Causeway and Stockwood.
Seating up to 40 people, the bus was first unveiled last Autumn and will operate four days a week from 25 March. If the scheme proves to be successful, First West will consider introducing further buses.
Managing Director, James Freeman said: “Since its original unveiling last year the Bio-Bus has generated worldwide attention and so it’s our privilege to bring it to the city, to operate, quite rightly, on Service 2.”
“The very fact that it’s up and running in the city should help to open up a serious debate about how buses are best fuelled, and what is good for the environment” he added.