Changes at Kirkwall Travel Centre

Changes are being made to the bus stances at the Kirkwall Travel Centre to allow the introduction of a charging point for the county’s electric bus at the facility.

Stance 5 will now be used for charging the electric bus. Buses previously leaving from Stance 5, will now depart from Stance 4. The services affected are 6 (Tingwall), 7 (Birsay) and 8s (Skara Brae). The airport bus will continue to depart from Stance 4.

The changes will come into effect from February 6.

Orkney Islands Council took delivery of the new Optare Solo SR in April 2015 with a full funding award being secured for the vehicle from the Scottish Government and Transport Scotland.

The introduction of a charging point at the travel centre will allow more flexibility in the electric bus service. When fully charged, the bus has a range of around 70 miles. It currently makes five round trips on the 12-mile airport route before returning to base for a charge-up.

The new rapid-charger has a charge-up period of just two-and-a-half hours.

The Council’s Head of Transport and Infrastructure, Brian Archibald, said: “Our electric vehicles are a great demonstration of the Council’s commitment to reducing consumption of fossil fuels by making use of something Orkney has in abundance – locally-generated renewable energy.”

“The feedback from the public on the experience of using the bus has been excellent and we’re pleased to be able to improve on the service further.”