Bristol's 'Poo bus' prepares to make a splash

The UK's first human poo bus is to be used regularly in service in Bristol from 25 March 2015, with the 32,674 households along the route of Service 2 in the city helping to fuel it.

The Bio-Bus can seat up to 40 people, with space for one wheelchair, and is powered by biomethane gas produced from food and sewage waste by GENeco, a subsidiary of Wessex Water.

The Bio-Bus helps to improve urban air quality as it produces fewer emissions than traditional diesel engines.

For the duration of the trial all the households along the route used by the Bio-Bus (Service 2) will, indirectly, help to fuel it. These households have their waste processed at Bristol sewage treatment works at Avonmouth. 

The route of Service 2 is around 15 miles in each direction, meaning it would take each household around two months to produce enough waste to fuel an end-to-end journey on it. Collectively though, all the households along the route could produce enough waste over the course of a year to run the Bio-Bus for 4.1million kilometres (2.5 million miles).

Talking about the Bio-Bus, and the company’s plans to operate it in the city, James Freeman, Managing Director of First West of England says: 

“Since its original unveiling last year the Bio-Bus has generated worldwide attention and so it’s our great privilege to bring it to the city, to operate – quite rightly – on Service 2. 

“The Bio-Bus previously made an appearance running between Bath and Bristol Airport at the end of last year, but its only actually been used once before in the centre of Bristol itself.

“From 25 March we’ll be running the Bio-Bus on a set schedule for four days a week. 

“The very fact that its running in the city should help to open up a serious debate about how buses are best fuelled, and what is good for the environment. In this Bristol Green Capital year that conversation is more welcome than ever.” 

• To find out when the Bio-Bus is running in Bristol, log onto www.firstgroup.com/biobus 
• To offer feedback about the Bio-Bus, tweet @FirstBSA and @Bristol_2015 using the hastag #biobus. 
• For more information about GENeco, or the bio-methane bus, see www.geneco.uk.com.