Red kites are a symbol of cleanliness for buses

Mar 23 2009 The Journal

THE North-East’s red kites are doubling as symbols to be carried on buses to indicate the cleanliness of their engines.

Pupils from Wardley Primary School in Gateshead were the first to see giant versions of Go North East’s kite marks – a series of five, simple symbols based on a red kite taking flight and echoing the five European standards on engine emissions.

The pupils helped launch the scheme at Heworth Interchange in Gateshead.

Using a white banner bearing the kite marks, the pupils also saw how clean the material stays when it is held over the exhaust of one of Go North East’s Euro 5 Citylink buses when the engine is running. Each of the kite marks, representing one of the five European standards on emissions, will begin appearing on the back windows and inside all Go North East buses over the coming months.

The company runs a red kite-branded bus service along the Derwent Valley, where the kites have been reintroduced and won the business category in the Northumberland Wildlife Trust Awards last year for its involvement in the kites project.

Martin Harris, commercial director with Go North East, which has 600 buses, said: “Buses are still seen by some people as dirty and smelly and we wanted a unique way to illustrate how our buses meet the highest standards of engine cleanliness. Our award-winning work with Northern Kites, together with our award-winning Red Kite bus inspired us to use the red kites to illustrate the cleanliness of our bus engines, strongly linked as the birds are with environmental success in the region.

“Go North East was the first bus company in the region to introduce Euro 5 engines and is still the only operator in the region to have buses which meet those exacting standards. We are now able to spread this message simply and clearly with our kite marks.” The entire fleet runs on biodiesel which also contributes to lower emissions.