The Electrification of Burton Depot 

In February 2026, the successful Electrification of the Diamond East Midlands Burton depot became fully operational following a tremendous infrastructure upgrade. 

In 2025, a partnership with Staffordshire County Council led to a successful £2.4m DfT Zero Emission Bus Regional Areas (ZEBRA) 2 award, funding the introduction of 9 Brand New Electric Buses to the Staffordshire region.  

In addition, through Levelling Up funding and private funding from Rotala, an investment of £1.9m was committed to provide depot upgrades to support the operation and maintenance of these new EV buses and bring these positive changes to the depot. 

Working with partners Magnus Construction, Vextrix, Janus Architecture and JB Langley, all of whom have significant experience in bus depot design and construction, along with the EV infrastructure expertise needed to deliver this project, the depot has benefited from the introduction of: 

  • 6 Ground-mounted Heliox chargers 
  • 9 Gantry-mounted Heliox chargers. Installed to minimise loss of space in the depot, with automated drop-down reels, reducing the need for trailing cables across the yard and have been designed to allow safe access for maintenance without the need for specialist access equipment. They provide additional benefits of localised task lighting between high vehicles for safer night operation. 
  • The gantry is fitted with a bespoke structure to accommodate the future introduction of Photovoltaic panels. 
  • A 1,500 kVa substation has been built, with ability to scale to full electrification of the depot for circa 50 vehicles with the installation of additional charge points. 

The project has taken a full 18-months to be fully realised. During the construction, our depot team worked in daily collaboration with Magnus and its subcontractors to plan ground works in and around bus parking requirements and to limit any impact on service delivery. 

This investment is part of Rotala’s long-term commitment to operating buses in the Burton area, bringing an improved customer experience, a more sustainable and greener bus network to the region. 

This project has, and will go on to deliver huge benefits to the Diamond East Midlands Network: 

  • For the customer we are delivering quieter, cleaner, comfortable and more sustainable journeys. 
  • For the depot, we are delivering more reliable vehicles with fewer breakdowns, lower maintenance requirements, simplification of the operation process and improved working environment for our employees. 
  • For the region, we are delivering improved air quality across the 7/8/9 service corridor. Through monitoring we will deliver a saving of 1,108 tonnes of CO2 per year and 3m Gigawatts of energy saved. 
  • A £3.8m commitment to deliver further EV vehicles in 2026. 

Additionally, Rotala has developed our own inhouse Electric Bus Data Management System. Live onbus data monitors vehicle and driver performance, to support driver training and awareness of driving styles to improve performance and consistency of carbon savings. The system provides clear visibility for engineering and operational teams and informs long term decisions on EV deployment, vehicle acquisition and infrastructure planning. 

The experience and knowledge gained in delivering this whole project has enabled valuable understanding of rolling out electrification throughout other Rotala subsidiaries. It will support the Group’s strategy for transitioning further to zero emission vehicles and expanding the growth of sustainable bus operations to wider communities throughout England.