There’s a quiet revolution rolling its way across the UK’s streets - one that’s powered by ambition and a shared vision for cleaner and greener bus travel.

Over the past year, transport authorities, operators, manufacturers and government have worked together through the UK Bus Manufacturing Expert Panel to crystallise a roadmap to an effective, efficient and sustainable roll out of zero emission buses (ZEBs). This is a step change in long term planning for the bus sector and of collaboration across the industry.

This work and direction did not materialise in a vacuum. It builds directly on the policy groundwork laid by the Urban Transport Group’s report A Smoother Ride: Unlocking a green bus revolution, which highlighted the policy reforms, funding certainty, and manufacturing capacity needed to drive a nationwide shift to zero emission bus fleets.

Published in 2024 as the final instalment of a three-part series on the bus, the report set out the scale of the challenge and the opportunities in the journey to accelerate zero emission bus deployment - spanning the policy environment, funding mechanisms, depot infrastructure, manufacturing capability, and opportunities for standardisation. It argued that while city regions are committed to decarbonisation, progress can be held back by fragmented funding, inconsistent procurement cycles, challenges in infrastructure and gaps in national policy. The report’s call for a coordinated national approach resonated strongly across the sector. And in March 2025, Government convened the UK Bus Manufacturing Expert Panel to address these challenges.

Comprised of transport authorities, operators, manufacturers, mayors and national policymakers, as well as UTG, the panel focused on building the foundations to unlock the ZEB roll out. Its headline objectives included supporting UK bus manufacturing, enabling better planning certainty to the sector, improving future bus designs and unlocking efficiencies and infrastructure barriers.

Long term certainty and visibility have long been the key ask from the sector, as recognised throughout our research in the report. Unsurprisingly, it was also amongst the key topics of the panel, with stakeholders stressing that multi-year certainty is key to scaling production, investing in facilities and supporting skilled jobs.

The first step towards this was taken last year through the Bus Services (No. 2) Act 2025, which legislated to end the use of new, non-zero emission buses in England by 2030. Whilst the 10-year Zero Emission Bus Order Pipeline, published as part of the Panel’s concluding work this month, marked the next significant step towards providing this certainty. Forecasting anticipated orders from 2026 to 2035, the pipeline projects demand for more than 23,000 battery-electric and zero emission buses over the next decade. Crucially, the pipeline consolidates data across local authorities and operators, providing sector-wide visibility for the first time.

Alongside the order pipeline, the Panel also published a set of wide-ranging commitments covering social value, accessibility, safety, collective procurement, and grid connectivity.

The panel’s work highlights the double win that enhancing UK bus manufacturing can bring, supporting the transition to ZEBs and bolstering jobs and economic growth.

Driving social value through bus procurement also emerged as a key means to do just that, both by operators and authorities procuring vehicles directly. Whilst Mayoral Strategic Authorities (MSAs) are bound to strict national regulations and policy, the majority of authorities have developed their own local procurement strategies, social value frameworks and methodologies across their procurement activity. Through these frameworks, MSAs prioritise local and ethical employment, skills and training, environmental sustainability, community engagement and growth through local supply chain spend.

The transition to ZEBs is a major public investment. Embedding social value throughout procurement can generate tangible benefits beyond those inherent in the deployment and running of the vehicles - from local job creation, apprenticeships, to supply chain development, community wellbeing‑ and environmental initiatives. By working together to learn and share best practice and embed consistent and standardised approaches to capturing and delivering social value, MSAs can extract the best value for the passenger.

Further commitments from the panel included setting up future work on vehicle design, including on safety and accessibility, and collaboration to unlock ongoing grid connectivity and infrastructure challenges.

Both our report and the panel’s work have placed collaboration at the heart of the transition. The panel turned our rallying call into practice - convening leaders, aligning priorities, and delivering a unified roadmap. Using this roadmap, our members, operators, manufacturers and the government are embarking on a promising journey.

Backed by long term investment (with the latest £73.2million boost announced earlier in March), stronger partnerships between national and local government, industry and transport authorities will be key.

If the promise outlined in the Expert Panel commitments is delivered over the next decade, the UK’s green bus revolution will be well underway, and the foundations laid by A Smoother Ride will have played a crucial role in making that happen.

Monta Drozdova is Policy Manager at the Urban Transport Group

This piece appeared in Passenger Transport magazine.