I have a brief news
update on the London Bus scene for you all:
The first double deck
BYD K8SR electric bus BYD1473 (registration LJ16EZO), entered service on
Thursday 5th May on route 98 (Russell Square to Willesden
Gardens); it then operated the night service - N98 (Russell Square and Stanmore
Station). The following day on Friday, the rest of the three BYD double deck
electric buses entered service on route 98.
Here’s a mini fleet
list of the BYD double deck electric buses from London Vehicle Finder.
BYD1471
|
LJ16EZM
|
BYD1472
|
LJ16EZN
|
BYD1473
|
LJ16EZO
|
Route 98 is currently
operated by Metroline from Willesden (AC) Garage.
In other news, the new
‘shortened’ 3 door 2 staircase New
Routemaster has been delivered to Holloway (HT) garage, the fleet number is
ST812 and the number plate is LTZ1812; they are expected to enter route 91 this
month (May) and will be operated by Metroline.
Go Ahead London
subsidiary Blue Triangle has opened a
new garage in Barking, the name for the new garage is River Road (RR). The new garage will eventually replace their
Rainham (BE) garage which is near to Stagecoach Rainham (RM) garage. Their new
contract route, 147, commences on Saturday 7th May 2016 and runs from Canning Town to Ilford.
Their previous operation was Stagecoach London from West Ham (WH) garage.
I'm sure you all know
by now that Labour’s Sadiq Khan has
been elected as the new London Mayor.
Taking a look at the policies, with regards to transport, we are expecting to
see the new ‘hopper’ ticket which
enables people to transfer buses within one hour, costing one fare, which is
similar to the system the San Francisco ‘Muni’ provides. Also he promises
to freeze fares for four years which is his Mayoral term length.
I wrote in my previous article that Sadiq Khan won’t be
purchasing any more 3 door 2 staircase hybrid buses called the New Routemaster,
in favour of increasing the zero emission fleet which can be battery electric
or hydrogen. A couple of months ago TFL released a new 2016/17 budget which includes extending the New
Routemaster fleet to 1,000.
This may be the end of
the New Routemaster but it's just the beginning of the new competing stylish
bus designs which are the Volvo SRM (Son of Routemaster) and Enviro400H City,
they are bought by private operating companies.
That's all I have for
now. You can follow me on Twitter,
Tumblr, Pinterest and Google Plus
at: @CLondoner92
