Residents of the town of Seymour in Victoria will be the first in a regional town to benefit from an entirely zero emission bus network, with all five bus routes now using electric buses.
Located at the Southern end of the Goulburn Valley in the Shire of Mitchell, Seymour’s five bus routes are now fully electric, nine months after Seymour Passenger Services rolled out its first zero emission bus.
PSeymour Passenger Services is one of six operators across Victoria taking part in the Victorian labor government’s $20 million Zero Emission Bus (ZEB) Trial ,which plans to roll out 52 zero emission buses across Melbourne, Traralgon, and Seymour.
Victoria has already moved to ensure that, from 2025, all new buses added to the state’s public transport routes will be zero emission buses – a move which will eventually transition around 4,500 diesel buses to greener technology.
This is just one step in Victoria’s overall goal of becoming net zero by 2045.
The three year ZEB trial will help to inform the larger transition, with data collected helping to provide practical information on how zero emission buses perform and the energy and charging requirements for different types of service.
“Seymour is leading the way in Victoria with cleaner and more sustainable transport options as we push towards achieving net zero emissions by 2045,” said Ben Carroll, Victoria’s minister for public transport.
“We’re investing in cleaner technologies, supporting local manufacturing and delivering a more modern, efficient and reliable bus network that gets passengers where they need to go.”
Three of the buses operating in Seymour are Volvo EV buses, and sustainable engineering firm Mondo has designed, procured, installed, and commissioned the bus charging infrastructure, and also maintains the Siemens-based heavy vehicle charging system.
Joshua S. Hill is a Melbourne-based journalist who has been writing about climate change, clean technology, and electric vehicles for over 15 years. He has been reporting on electric vehicles and clean technologies for Renew Economy and The Driven since 2012. His preferred mode of transport is his feet.