Welcome to the October edition of Surbon Signal. This month: what I took away from Clean Buses UK, why the end of zero-emission bus grants means buying together, plus useful reading and upcoming events.
1) Scale is the new subsidy
The challenge of electric buses is the upfront cost. It’s double the price of a diesel bus, so in an era when the cost of almost everything is rising, how do we incentivise buying them? Government largesse cannot be relied upon, and putting fares up would only drive passengers away.
At Clean Buses UK in London this month, Stephen Fidler, Director of Local Passenger Transport and Inclusion at the DfT, put up a title slide that summed up my argument in seven words: “From grant funding to a stable UK market.” Grants got the first electric buses on the road. They won’t electrify the rest of the fleet. That takes scale, and scale means authorities buying together
The UK grant era, in numbers
In the UK, 2,500 zero-emission buses were registered in 2025, a record and more than 50% up on the 1,600 in 2024. For the first time, more than half of all new buses registered were zero-emission and mostly electric.
Zero-emission buses make up 23% of London’s fleet. In England outside London, the figure is 8%. The grants worked where the money and the momentum already were.
The funding model is changing too.
- Around £500m of dedicated money came through ZEBRA 1 and 2 between 2021 and 2026.
- Next come long-term settlements: £15.6bn over five years for the nine mayoral areas and £2.3bn for smaller cities, towns and rural areas, with zero-emission buses taking their share alongside everything else.
- Add the Bus Services Act 2025, which allows an end date for new diesel buses, not before 2030. There is also a 10-year order pipeline (between 17,400 and 21,525 buses over ten years) the DfT now publishes so manufacturers can plan.s so manufacturers can plan.
So, ring-fenced grants out. Long-term budgets, a deadline and a forward order book in.
Buying together
The logic of joint procurement is simple. One authority ordering 40 buses gets 40 bus prices. Several authorities ordering to a common specification get a manufacturer’s attention, a production slot and a better price for 200 buses. In March 2026, the UK mayoral combined authorities committed to explore joint procurement “where it makes sense” and to work with manufacturers on standard bus specifications. Transport for West Midlands is already exploring a joint procurement with Northern Ireland’s Translink.
India has already done this at scale. In 2022, a single tender run by Convergence Energy Services Ltd (CESL) bought 5,450 electric buses for five cities, with the lowest 12-metre bid at Rs 43.49 per kilometre, charging included.
France goes further: it has a permanent buyer. The Centrale d’Achat du Transport Public (CATP) tenders frameworks in advance, so its 600-plus members, including the 20 largest urban areas, can buy buses without running their own procurement. Membership is free, and the fee is around 1%. This year it launched electric bus frameworks worth almost €2.5bn.
Why it is harder than it sounds
There is no single UK market. DfT funds England; Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have their own funding arrangements. Moreover, every UK authority is at a different stage. Some are franchising, some are in enhanced partnerships, some are still deciding. Joint procurement needs aligned timetables, and there is a lot of activity but not as yet an aligned calendar.
Social value pulls against scale. There is a lot of emphasis on local jobs by UK politicians, by which most people in the room at Clean Buses meant UK jobs. But a joint contract has one supply chain and several sets of local politicians. Whose jobs count, and where?
That last one is interesting from a social value commitment. The same mayoral commitments set a minimum 10% social value weighting in future bus tenders and a consistent approach that captures UK-wide benefits as well as local ones. If that holds, joint buying can work. If each authority instead insists on jobs in its own patch, it falls apart at the first evaluation.
The circular bonus
There is a quieter benefit to standard specifications. If authorities buy to a common design and from the same manufacturer, parts become interchangeable across fleets. That makes refurbishment, battery second life and buying components as a service far more realistic. Circular economy in transport starts with the specification.
The future?
Joint procurement is hard. Different specs, different timelines, different politics. But the alternative is dozens of separate small orders, and a UK bus industry that never gets the volume it needs to invest.
That’s why the TfWM/Translink joint bus procurement is worth watching closely over the coming months. If two authorities with very different networks can buy together, the excuses for everyone else get thinner.
2) Useful reading
🚲 Does Manchester Long for the Lime Bike?The Mill takes a closer look at the micro-mobility landscape, examining the footprint of e-bikes and what city residents really think about shared urban transit options.
📉 London Buses in Terminal Decline? A compelling visual deep-dive from The Guardian exploring how congestion and squeezed road space are slowing down global city transit—and why London's iconic red buses are losing speed and riders.
🚌 Scotland's Bus Network Overhaul Operators are pushing for urgent clarity following the First Minister's announcement to bring Scotland's bus networks under public control, with industry bodies warning that reform must focus on passenger outcomes rather than sweeping mandates.
🚆 Seamless Transit in Dubai: Etihad Rail Meets the Metro Commuters can now transfer between the UAE's national railway and the Dubai Metro Red Line in just five minutes via a new, air-conditioned 375-metre pedestrian bridge equipped with moving walkways (Gulf Business).
🏗️ Bidding Heats Up for Dubai's New Metro Line Project Major international firms are forming joint ventures to compete for the latest phase of expansion (MEED).
3) Upcoming events & training
🚌 27–29 October:Funding, Financing and Transport Economics Training(Barcelona)
🚌 3- 5 November:EuroBus Expo 2026 (Birmingham)
🏛️ 16–18 November:Funding, Financing and Procurement in Public Transport Training(New Jersey)
🌐 17–27 November:Sustainability in Public Transport Training (Online)
🚄 7–8 December:UITP MENA Conference 2026 (Dubai) — Looking forward to this one, especially after the cancellation of the UITP Global Summit earlier in the year.
Until next month,
Rachel
About Surbon Consulting
Surbon Consulting helps public transport operators, authorities and suppliers win contracts and deliver social value, with 18 years of experience and over 40 bids across the UK, Europe and the Middle East. Want to know more? Book a call or explore articles and resources.
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