Van Hool

Van Hool of Belgium manufactures around 1400 buses and coaches annually and is a major bus manufacturer in Europe, supplying public transport for the international market.
The Van Hool A330 was brought into service as part of the Aberdeen Bus Project (ABP) -an innovative public-private partnership which at the time was Europe’s largest hydrogen fuel cell electric bus fleet to date (10), 4 of which were operated by First Group and 6 by Stagecoach, each worth a reported £0.5m. As part of the project, a production and fuelling station was built at Kittybrewster.

The project cost a total of £19m which comprised of EU funding, national funding and a contribution from Aberdeen City Council, First Group and Stagecoach. The ABP had a number of objectives, including the reduction of the cost of ownership of the buses, increase in operational availability and a further increase in bus lifetime.

The Stagecoach Van Hool A330 has a tri-axle chassis and could hold up to 103 passengers, with low entry to improve accessibility and importantly, could hold between 40-50kg of hydrogen. This meant that the bus had a long range, generally only requiring refuelling once a day and this only took around 12 minutes to complete. Most importantly, there are no exhaust emissions - the only by-product is water.

Feedback from customers was generally positive, particularly noting that there was a reduction in noise and vibration. The Van Hool addressed a concern that bus operators should be investing in clean buses—one single hydrogen bus saves around 84 tonnes of CO2 per year!

Donated by Aberdeen City Council.