London has suspended several electric buses after a seemingly spontaneous fire broke out in a double-decker bus, sparking calls for a re-examination of every electric bus used in the capital’s fleet.
On Thursday, an electric bus caught on fire on Wimbledon Hill Road in London. While no injuries were reported and investigations into the cause of the fire are still ongoing, the office of London Mayor Sadiq Khan — a chief proponent of the green agenda in Britain — announced the suspension of the same model of electric busses from the route.
In addition, the Mayor’s office said that all electric busses active in London produced by the firm Switch “will be checked thoroughly as a matter of urgency,” the Evening Standard reports.
The moment an electric bus caught fire in Wimbledon during this morning's rush hour.
Thankfully, no-one was injured. #london #wimbledon pic.twitter.com/wvPbeNTvZR
— BBC London (@BBCLondonNews) January 11, 2024
However, some are calling for the city to go further, with the City Hall Conservatives’ transport spokesman, Keith Prince calling for the immediate withdrawal of all Switch electric busses until the cause of the fire is determined.
“We’re also calling for urgent checks on the remaining electric buses in the fleet to ensure they are safe,” Prince said. “Londoners need to have confidence that their bus is safe and won’t burst into flames. Sadiq Khan must not compromise the safety of Londoners.”
“We need action, not words. Failure to act will tell Londoners that Sadiq Khan doesn’t care about safety.”
Following the electric bus fire in Wimbledon, a hybrid bus caught on fire on Friday morning in North Woolwich. Fortunately, the bus was not occupied at the time, however, it took firefighters over an hour to get the fire under control, the Daily Mail reports. Transport for London (TfL) has claimed that there was likely no connection between the two fires this week.
London bus burnt out in north Woolwich this morning. @CrimeLdn pic.twitter.com/XwPnKQKCxs
— Cafu (@Cafu1453) January 12, 2024
The TfL’s head of buses business development, Tom Cunnington said: “London’s bus network remains safe to use and we have no reason to suspect that this fire on a hybrid bus was linked to an earlier incident on an electric bus in Wimbledon.
“The bus was out of service when the fire happened and there are no reported injuries. TfL and the bus operators will not hesitate to take action if required to ensure the bus network remains safe.”
Transport for London claims to currently have “more than 1,000 zero-emission buses operate in our fleet — both single and double-deck vehicles, built by various manufacturers in the UK and globally.”
Far-left Mayor Sadiq Khan has put forward plans to transform the city’s entire fleet of buses to “zero emissions” by the year 2034, meaning that around 8,000 buses will need to be switched out over the next decade.
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