Our story
The Harrogate Bus Company (operated by Transdev) is working in partnership with North Yorkshire Council to make Harrogate Britain's first 'zero-emission bus town'.
In August 2023, The Harrogate Bus Company placed orders worth £21 million for 39 new buses to enable conversion of its entire fleet in the town to fully electric power. This included 20 new all-electric single-deck buses, to be used on the operator's busy urban route 1 between Harrogate and Knaresborough; route 7 linking Harrogate, Wetherby and Leeds; and rural route 24 between Harrogate and Pateley Bridge.
There were also 19 new British-built, fully-electric double-deck buses, to relaunch route 36 linking Ripon, Harrogate and Leeds. Most of the zero-emission buses on route 36 cover over 100,000 kilometres a year, with over two million customer journeys per annum, and the 36 bus route won the UK Innovation Award in July 2025.
These orders are supported by £7.8m of funding from the Government's Zero Emission Bus Regional Areas (ZEBRA) scheme, following a successful bid by North Yorkshire Council, covering just over a third of the total cost.
The substantial investment follows successful trials of several types of all-electric buses on three varied routes in and around Harrogate, and on The Harrogate Bus Company's high-frequency Shuttle route linking Bradford and Keighley.
Henri Rohard, Transdev Managing Director, said: "Higher power output delivered by today's new generation batteries means each bus can go further between charge-ups. To make sure we provide a reliable service, our buses will also have top-up charges at Harrogate Bus Station, as they will travel further in a day than the maximum range achievable by fully electric buses."
The new 12m-long single-decker buses can go 80 miles on a single charge, and once back at the depot, will take just 6 minutes to fully re-charge, while passengers are boarding.
Our advice
The company invested time in conducting extensive trials to determine the suitability of the various bus models they were considering for the variety of public transport requirements within the city and out to its rural surroundings. This included planning of the charging infrastructure that would suit the varied operational demands of the new fleet across those routes. During the trials, The Harrogate Bus Company also invited customers to rate key design features, and their feedback was incorporated into the specifications of the new buses.
Transdev worked in close partnership with North Yorkshire Council was essential, in the planning and obtaining finance from the Government's ZEBRA scheme; and in the popularity and success of the bus services with customers.
Our Changeprint
Our Changeprint can be measured by the reduction in carbon emissions; increase in passenger miles as more people travel by electric bus; improvements in air quality; and training and upskilling of engineering teams to maintain electric bus fleets.
