Saturday 30 July 2016

New Routemasters for East London Transit!

A couple of weeks ago I published an article suggesting that New Routemaster routes should have a branded bus service, then out of the blue TfL decides to have East London Transit routes with New Routemaster buses that have 3 doors and 2 staircases.

Route 48 is also listed for New Routemaster conversion and a follow up with various routes converting to standard hybrid buses.


Below is the TfL London Bus tender awards:

TfL intends to enter into the following contracts:
·         48 awarded to Arriva London North (currently Stagecoach East London) with new Euro VI New Routemaster, PVR 22. Start date 25 February 2017
·         58 re-awarded to Tower Transit with 2010 Euro V diesel double deck including 3 new Euro VI hybrids, PVR 17. Start date 4 March 2017
·         97 re-awarded to Stagecoach East London with 2009 Euro IV diesel double deck, PVR 22. Start date 4 March 2017
·         215 re-awarded to Stagecoach East London with 2011 Euro V diesel double deck. Start date 4 March 2017
·         242 (24 hour) re-awarded to Arriva London North with Euro VI hybrid double deck, PVR 20. Start date 25 February 2017
·         273 re-awarded to Stagecoach Selkent with new Euro VI diesel single deck, PVR 9. Start date 14 January 2017
·         277 (24 hour) re-awarded to Stagecoach East London with 20 new Euro VI hybrid double deck and 5 2011 Euro V diesels. PVR 25. Start date 25 February.
·         325 re-awarded to Arriva London North with 2010 diesel Euro V diesel single deck, PVR 12. Start date 4 March 2017
·         380 re-awarded to Stagecoach Selkent with new Euro VI single deck, PVR 14. Start date 21 January 2017
·         388 re-awarded to CT Plus with new Euro VI double deck, PVR 15. Start date 21 January 2017.
·         EL1 re-awarded to Blue Triangle with new Euro VI New Routemaster, PVR 17. Start date18 February 2017
·         EL2 re-awarded to Blue Triangle with new Euro VI New Routemaster, PVR 15. Start date 18 February 2017
·         EL3 awarded to Blue Triangle (currently Stagecoach East London, route 387 renumbered) with new Euro VI New Routemaster, PVR 14. Start date 18 February.

This is quite interesting; a bus rapid transit service with 3 door 2 staircase hybrid buses will certainly make a difference to boarding times. The drawback however is that the open boarding system will encourage more fare evasion, which is why it’s important for TfL to increase revenue protection.
It's going to be a long wait for the East London Transit routes to have 3 door and 2 staircase hybrid buses as the contract start date is on 18th February 2017.

This will be the first time that the New Routemaster bus will be serving the outer East London Borough routes as it goes nowhere near Central London.

Here’s a quick table of next New Routemaster conversions:

Route
Operator
Expected date
21
Go Ahead London Central
8th October 2016
48
Arriva
25th February 2017
76
Go Ahead London General
28th January 2017
EL1, EL2 & EL3
Go Ahead Blue Triangle
18th February 2017

The New Routemaster rollout is coming to the end, but the design will live on as Wrightbus has unveiled the two door design which uses Volvo B5LH hybrid technology. The bus type is known as Wright SRM and six of these will see service on route 13 by this September; they are purchased by RATP-Dev.

We better wait and see how it all pans out.

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