A new location may need to be found for the island’s bus depot as part of a drive to switch to electric buses

Deputy chief officer for the Department of Infrastructure, Jeff Robinson told a Tynwald scrutiny committee that Bank’s Circus is not big enough and would be costly to upgrade its electrical supply to provide suitable charging facilities.

He was giving evidence to the Environment and Infrastructure policy review committee alongside Infrastructure Minister Tim Crookall.

Mr Robinson told the committee: ‘We know the bus depot is not particularly suitable to move over to electrical vehicles.

‘We are looking at where we might be able to do that in an alternative location that would be suitable so we can bring in both new fuels, as a transition, but also start toward electrical buses, where most of the industry seems to be going at the moment.

‘It's more economic, more than likely, to go elsewhere.

‘Getting the electrical infrastructure at that location is not easy and expensive, and also the size of the site isn't big enough. Having to set up to charge vehicles every night will increase the size of the site. It’s not ideal.

‘Having said that, we have an emerging bus strategy. We're perhaps looking to decentralise sites. So I would say, ”watch this space”.’

Infrastructure Minister Tim Crookall said the current location at Bank’s Circus is a ‘prime site for development’.

He said: ‘If we had to move, there's some money to come back to invest into the new sites going forward.

‘There's nothing planned at all. We're talking years away, probably,’ he stressed.

But he then told the committee: ‘I don’t think it will be too long before you will see an electric bus here full-time.’

The current bus depot was built on the site of Douglas railway station yard.