Electric bus on trial is favoured by CT Plus
CT PLUS will be recommending a British-made electric bus to the States for its future fleet, as long as the demonstrator currently in the island meets expectations.
The Mellor Sigma 8 is the third electric bus to be brought to the island, but director Kevin Hart said that this was the one best-suited to the island’s roads.
‘We’ll be recommending this as an alternative vehicle as long as everything goes all right on the roads trial,’ he said.
Guernsey’s current fleet is made up largely of Streetvibe buses, which are 9.4m long and 2.278m wide with a maximum capacity of 41 people. The Sigma 8s are 8.7m long and 2.35m wide.
This model uses a single-drive motor powered by CATL 210kWh batteries which are carried in the vehicle’s roof. It can complete more than 160 miles on a single charge and be fully charged in two hours 50 minutes.
The bus can carry up to 27 passengers seated and 27 standing although CT Plus relief controller Harrison Cruwys said that the configuration of seats would probably be altered were it introduced in the island.
‘For the size of vehicle, this one has the highest capacity of the three,’ said Mr Cruwys.
‘It has a small rear overhang which is important for manoeuvrability.’
Mr Cruwys said that as well as a few residents, several visitors to the island had taken a look around the vehicle and all had liked what they saw.
One resident was regular bus passenger Leonie Carre who was impressed at how easy it was to board with her pram with baby Theo, 18 months.
She was particularly impressed when told that the buses would have air conditioning.
‘That’s amazing. That would be so good. It can be very hot, especially if it’s a bit busy.’
The demo bus will be in the island until 18 August and CT Plus operations manager Kevin Jackman said it would be tried on a number of routes, although it was limited due to a fitted wing mirror which would be removed were these buses to start operating locally.
The final arbiter of any electric buses coming to Guernsey will be Environment & Infrastructure, one of whose members, Deputy Adrian Gabriel, had popped down to take a look at the bus.
He said that after its trials, committee staff would look at the bus company’s assessment and report back to the committee if they considered it worth further investigation.
That had not happened following the last two bus trials. ‘They have to tick all the boxes,’ he said.
CT Plus also had a table set up near the bus for anyone interested in finding out about becoming a driver, but Mr Cruwys said that, as of lunchtime, nobody had come forward.
At present, the majority of its drivers were from outside the island.
‘There’s recently been a pay increase for drivers and there’s been a lot of interest from England,’ he said.
