Congratulations to Oxfordshire County Council on winning the Best Public Transport Decarbonisation prize at the 2026 Decarbonising Transport Awards for their introduction of electric buses in Oxford. Their winning submission included findings from PHIRST PHRESH’s recent evaluation of the project showing reductions in air pollution and noise and increased health benefits associated with the introduction of electric vehicles.

You can learn more about the prize via the news story on the Oxfordshire County Council website or read more about the PHIRST evaluation here.

This is the first evaluation completed by our PHIRST PHRESH team. A collaboration between the Universities of Birmingham, Warwick and Keele.

In 2022, Oxfordshire County Council secured £32.8m from the Department for Transport Zero Emission Bus Regional Area (ZEBRA) scheme. This enabled 159 battery-electric buses to be introduced across 34 Oxford SmartZone routes by the end of 2024.

Beginning in 2024, the PHIRST PHRESH evaluation investigated air and noise pollution changes before and after the introduction of battery electric buses in Oxford. It also explored people’s experiences of introducing and using the new fleet, including key stakeholders, bus passengers, residents and commuters.

Findings from the evaluation are now available on the PHIRST website. These show that after the introduction of electric buses air pollution rates fell by up to 24% in some high bus traffic areas.

Electric buses reduced roadside traffic noise in central urban areas by 5.1 decibels. This is comparable to the reduction in noise you would experience by moving three times further away from a road.

Given the well documented detrimental effects of air and noise pollution on health and wellbeing these findings suggest that the move to electric buses could help deliver significant health improvements, especially for people living close to major bus routes.

Interviews with passengers showed that the electric buses made travel more pleasant and provided better quality. However, the new buses did not change the way they travelled as that was influenced by many factors such as cost and reliability.

• Go to the evaluation page: Zero Emission Bus Regional Area (ZEBRA) scheme: The Introduction of zero-emission buses in Oxford

• Find out more about PHIRST PHRESH