Electric bus subsidies (FOI)Electric bus subsidies (FOI)
Produced by the Freedom of Information officeAuthored by Government of Jersey and published on
09 September 2019.Prepared internally, no external costs.
Request
I am interested to know what subsidy the tax payer has given LibertyBus in relation to the recent trials of electric buses / sustainable transport.
In 2013 they received £4.5m from the public purse, and this reduced (presumably annually) to £450k in 2018. So it's great we've got some electric buses, but it would be good to know how much this is all actually costing us.
Response
The electric bus is a demonstration vehicle which is on loan to LibertyBus from the Optare Group Ltd (Optare), the manufacturer, to carry out an in service trial on the Jersey bus network.
Any costs relating to the bus are covered by LibertyBus or Optare, which includes shipping costs. Therefore, the Government of Jersey have not provided a subsidy to LibertyBus regarding this matter.
Please note that no additional electrical infrastructure has been installed to allow this bus to be charged during its testing phase.